Some days being a sports fan kinda sucks.
Here’s a list of teams I root for who played games Friday: Maryland softball, Maryland women’s lacrosse, Maryland baseball, the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals.
Here’s a list of the teams on that list that won:
Add the loss by the Maryland men’s lacrosse team Thursday night and the 24 hour period, well, as Maryland students are so fond of shouting, sucks.
If you’re inclined to extensive self-flagellation, you can read my story about men’s lacrosse here and about women’s lacrosse here. If you prefer 50 lighter shades of red, read on.
SOFTBALL
Maryland softball’s late season swoon continued Friday afternoon in the first of a three game series at Michigan State. The Terps entered the game winless since sweeping Penn State and saw their five game losing streak extend to six in a 4-3 loss to the conference cellar dwellers.
After Maryland squandered a pair of walks in the top of the first, the home standing Spartans jumped on Terrapins starter Kaitlyn ‘KK’ Schmeiser in the bottom of the inning taking advantage of a leadoff walk. Left fielder Kassidy Kujawa doubled and lofted a sacrifice fly to center. Schmeiser got out of the inning with no further damage.
Maryland victimized themselves with some poor baserunning in the bottom of the second. KK led off with a single but made a poor decision trying to go to third on Juli Strange’s single to the right side and was thrown out. Strange took second but rather than having two on with none out, the Terps failed to push the run across in the one on one out situation.
Schmeiser sailed through the second but gave up two more in the third giving up three singles and a walk. Facing a 3-0 deficit, the Terps knotted the score in the top of the fourth.
Catcher Shannon Bustillos led off the inning with a home run to left. The blast was her 10th of the season and moved her into first place on the all-time list with 28. The RBI was the 148th of her career tying her for first all-time with 2007 graduate Lindsay Klein.
KK and Strange followed with back to back doubles to pull the Terps within one. After Mandy Gardner struck out, Kylie Datil singled to left. Strange wisely held at third but Datil advanced to second on the throw home. Lindsay Schmeiser lifted a sacrifice fly to right and Maryland was even at three.
Michigan State registered the game winner in the fifth inning. Lea Forrester led off the frame with a triple and scored on Kujawa’s flyout to center. The Terps managed only one base runner in their last two at bats – a leadoff walk to Lindsey Schmeiser to start the seventh but they went quietly after that. The win was only the third in conference play for the Spartans and with the loss Maryland drops to 26-25 on the season and 8-13 in B1G play.
BASEBALL
The Indiana Hoosiers and Maryland Terrapins opened an important three game series Friday night at Bob ‘Turtle’ Smith Stadium in College Park. The squads are jockeying for position in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament and the Terps likely needed to sweep the set if they were to have any chance of entering as the B1G champions. That possibility ended with Friday’s 6-5 loss.
Maryland sent their ace, Mike Shawaryn, to the hill and the Hoosiers were not at all impressed with the sophomore’s gaudy 10-0 record and 1.58 earned run average. Indiana put up a run after two were out in the top of the first ending Shawaryn’s string of 21 consecutive scoreless innings and added a pair in the third to sprint to a 3-0 lead.
Early on, it appeared that Indiana had either scouted Shawayn well or the sophomore didn’t have his customary stuff. The Hoosiers three runs came on six hits – one bloop and five line drives one of which went for a double.
Maryland drew even in the third taking advantage of a bit of wildness from Indiana starter Jake Kelzer. Tim Lewis got the rally started lining a one out single to center. LaMonte Wade and Kevin Smith dre back to back walks and Brandon Lowe laced a 1-2 pitch into right driving in Lewis and Wade and sending Smith to third. Catcher Kevin Martir put down a perfect safety squeeze up the first base line scoring Smith easily.
Maryland grabbed the lead in the bottom of the fourth when third baseman Jose Cuas led off the inning by driving a ball over the Under Armour logo in left field for his eighth home run of the year. Shawaryn sailed through the fourth and struck out Nick Ramos to start the fifth.
The Hoosiers then put together back to back singles to right and the sophomore appeared to be in a real jam when he walked Logan Sowers to load the bases. Early in the game, the Terps had helped out Kelzer by hitting into a pair of double plays. With the bases loaded and one out in the fifth, Craig Dedelow returned the favor grounding into a second to short to first twin killing.
When Maryland failed to take advantage of a pair of one out walks in the home half of the fifth, Indiana recaptured the lead for good in their next at bat in an inning where Maryland coach John Szefc’s decision to use the relatively inexperienced Willie Rios at first base twice proved costly.
Shawaryn issued a leadoff walk, an uncharacteristic third of the game for the New Jersey sophomore, to Will Nolden who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Cuas crashed into the wall behind the third base dugout to retire pinch hitter Ricky Alfonso. Then the real trouble began.
PHYSICAL PROBLEMS AND WHAT WERE THEY THINKING
Casey Rodrigue hit a slow bouncer to short and and beat out a bang-bang play at first with Nolden advancing to third. In the judgment of Testudo Times baseball writer Andrew Kramer who had a better angle on the play, a more aggressive stretch by Rios would have gotten the runner and the inning would have ended. The water became hotter when Rodrigue stole second putting the go ahead run in scoring position.
This may have been a mental error as, while it didn’t appear that the Hoosiers planned a delayed double steal, neither shortstop Kevin Smith nor second baseman Brandon Lowe covered the bag and Martir was left holding the ball.
With runners on second and third and two out, Nick Ramos hit a routine grounder to short that should have ended the inning. However, perhaps with memories of not getting Rodrigue two batters earlier still fresh in his head, Smith rushed his throw and bounced it to first. Though the scorer charged the error to Smith, the ball appeared to be a play that a more experienced and comfortable first baseman would have made. Both runners scored and the Hoosiers had a 5-4 lead.
The Terps had a chance to get one back in the bottom of the inning when Cuas reached third on a walk, a sac bunt and a stolen base with one out but reliever Scott Effross struck out Rios and Tim Lewis to kill the threat.
Mental errors continued to plague the Terrapins in the seventh. LaMonte Wade opened the inning with a single and Lowe walked with one out. Martir smashed a line drive single to center. Wade hesitated between second and third but the third base coach waved him around. Although the throw was a bit up the line, Wade was out by a considerable margin and a potential bases loaded one out situation changed to a more manageable one of first and second with two outs. The inning ended with Anthony Papio’s strikeout.
Indiana added an insurance run in the top of the eighth that proved to be the game winner when Maryland again failed to fully capitalize on an opportunity in the bottom of the inning. Without benefit of a hit, the Terps put runners on second and third with one out. Lewis grounded out to short for the second out driving in a run in the process.
Wade and Smith drew back to back walks to load the bases with two gone and Lowe, one of Maryland’s most productive batters, coming to the plate. The Terps’ second baseman popped out harmlessly to short and, when Cuas struck out looking to end the ninth, the 6-5 loss and any reasonable thoughts Maryland had of possibly capturing the B1G championship went down with that pitch.
The good thing about being a sports fan is that there’s almost always another day and another game.
Both the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams Will Likely have the chance to redeem their losses in the NCAA Tournament.
Both softball and baseball have games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Both have conference tournaments upcoming and the baseball team is also all but assured of an NCAA berth.
As for the Orioles and the Nationals, they are barely 20 games in to a 160 game season.
PLAY BALL!
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