The Maryland Terrapins and Virginia Cavaliers took the field on a mild, mostly cloudy, early June Friday afternoon at Davenport Field on the campus of the University of Virginia for first game of the best of three rematch of the 2014 Super Regional. Last year, the Cavaliers took the final two games after dropping the series opener. The stakes this season are the same, a trip to Omaha and the College World Series. In 2015, the first game had a different outcome than the first as Virginia rallied for five runs in the eighth inning to take the opener 5-3.
The early going
To say the pitchers owned the first inning would be an understatement. Both Maryland’s Mike Shawaryn and Virginia’s Connor Jones retired the side in order in the first and each used precisely 10 pitches to do so.
While Jones continued to handle the Terps, holding them hitless through three innings with Kevin Martir reaching on a walk only to be wiped out by a double play, Shawaryn proved to be something of an escape artist. The Cavaliers put runners on first and third with one out in the second and got a lead off double from their leading hitter Matt Thais in the fourth but the Terps’ ace escaped without conceding a run.
Runs on the Unicorn continue to be illusive and elusive
If Shawaryn, whose nickname is “The Unicorn”, had some magic about him in the second and fourth innings, he cast an even greater spell in the fifth when he escaped a jam not entirely of his own making.
Virginia right fielder Joe McCarthy led off the inning with a single to right center. With a 1-2 count on Kevin Doherty, he broke for second. Catcher Kevin Martir one hopped a throw into center field and McCarthy moved up to third with no one out. But Shawaryn struck out Ernie Clement and lead off hitter Adam Haseley before retiring shortstop Daniel Pinero on a fly ball to the gap in left center that LaMonte Wade ran down to keep the Cavs off the board.
And the Terps make them pay
Jones, who had been masterful through the first four innings issuing just a single walk and throwing 45 pitches, lost the plate in the fifth – an inning in which he would ultimately throw 30 pitches. He walked Nick Cieri to start the inning and issued a second walk to Jose Cuas after Anthony Papio moved Cieri up with a sacrifice bunt. After Tim Lewis struck out, Kevin Biondic drew the third walk of the inning loading the bases for the Most Outstanding Player from the UCLA Region, LaMonte Wade.
Wade sliced a 1-1 pitch toward the gap in left center. Haseley sprinted to his left and slid to make the catch. With the early evening sun in his eyes, the ball hit off his glove and was ruled a double. Wade had two runs batted in and the Terps had a 2-0 lead.
Not Pedro Cerrano but the voice of Allstate
The Terps picked up an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh, thanks to the good batting hands of Cuas, Lewis and Biondic. Cuas, swinging freely early in the at bat, shortened up his swing and poked a soft liner along the line in right for a lead off double. Lewis laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt down the third base line. With the count at one ball and one strike, Biondic did what his coach asked, pushing a bunt 10 feet in front of the plate on a suicide squeeze.
Trouble in the eighth
With his pitch count approaching 100, Shawaryn came out to start the eighth. He faced three batters all of whom hit the ball hard. Haseley lined out to short but Pinero and Matt Thaiss singled ending Shawaryn’s day. He would watch from the dugout as closer Kevin Mooney came in to try to preserve the lead.
Kenny Towns laced Mooney’s first pitch into left for an RBI single and Pavin Smith smoked a 2-2 pitch into center and suddenly the game was a one run affair. Town and Smith moved up to second and third on a wild pitch. With the infield drawn in, Robbie Coman grounded back to Mooney for the second out.
Before the series, Maryland coach John Szefc said that the one player on Virginia’s roster they would not allow to beat them was Joe McCarthy so the Terps walked him intentionally. Kevin Doherty smashed the first pitch from Mooney to the gap in left center. Wade, ranging far to his left, nearly made a spectacular grab on the warning track but the ball hit off the heel of his glove for a bases clearing double. For the first time on the day the Terps trailed.
And, if they were to come back, they would have to do so against Virginia’s closer, Josh Sborz who has 13 saves on the year.
A little help from the ump
Kevin Smith led off the bottom of the eighth for the Terps and lined the first pitch into center. He went to second when Pinero tossed the ball past an inattentive Sborz. Then came the moment of controversy. Sborz tossed a 1-2 pitch that appeared to hit Brandon Lowe on the foot but home plate umpire Chris Coskey ruled that he had stepped into the pitch or that the pitch had not hit him. Instead of first and second with no one out, the situation remained unchanged except for the count on Lowe.
Granted a possible reprieve, Sborz settled down and retired the Terps in order. Rob Galligan did the same to the Wahoos in the top of the ninth.
In 1967, Yvonne Craig starred in a made for television movie called Mars Needs Women. Something similar could have applied to Maryland’s ninth inning: Maryland Needs Base Runners. Both got neither and the Terps fell to UVA 5-3 and would face an elimination game on Saturday.
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