In their first-ever game hosting a regional tournament game, Maryland baseball dominated the LIU Sharks by a score of 23-2 to open up regional tournament play, scoring 20 or more runs in a game for the third time this season.
Ryan Ramsey started off the game with a strikeout and then struck out another batter to finish the top half of the first. The Terps then followed suit with Luke Shliger drawing a walk, but after that the Terps were not able to do anything else to finish the first inning. Then came the second inning onslaught.
In the top of the second, Ramsey had a quick six-pitch inning to bring the Terps back up to the plate. The Terps then had a monster inning by scoring nine runs. Maxwell Costes led the team with two runs scored while Chris "Bubba" Alleyne, Nick Lorusso, Matt Shaw, Troy Schreffler, Bobby Zmarzlak, Ian Petrutz, and Kevin Keister all scored one run. Lorusso had three RBIs while Shaw and Petrutz both had two. Zmarzlak and Shliger both had one. The Terps in that inning, scored more runs then in any other inning this season.
Ramsey then kept doing what Ramsey does and struck out another three batters in the top of the third. The Terps, still riding the highs from the second, scored another three runs to make it a 12-0 ball game. Lorusso brought in a run while Schreffler brought in another two runs. Shliger, Lorusso, and Shaw added to their run totals with one each in the third.
In the top of the fourth, Ramsey struck out another three batters but this time gave up a walk and a single to give the Sharks another two base runners to end up being stranded. Keister opened up the bottom half of the fourth with a single, and Shliger followed with a two-run home run to make it a 14-0 game. Schreffler, Costes, Zmarzlak, Lorusso, and Petrutz, then all scored another run each to make it a 19-0 game after four innings. The Terps broke the team tournament record of runs scored in a game in that fourth inning.
Ramsey continued his success in the top of the fifth with still leaving the Sharks with a zero on the scoreboard after five innings. The Terps offense then scored zero runs in the bottom half of the fifth to keep it 19-0. In the sixth, Logan Ott came in to relieve Ramsey after a dominant 5 innings pitched. Ott struck out two to add another shutout inning by the Terps. Petrutz in the bottom of the sixth then hit another home run for the Terps to make it a 20-0 game.
The Sharks cracked the run column in the seventh inningfor the first time to make it a 20-1 game off of Costes then drove in Alleyne and pinch-runner Jacob Orr off a single to center field in the bottom of the seventh to make it 22-1. In the eighth, the Terps kept the Sharks at one and also plated another run off an Orr double that drove in Shliger to make it 23-1. In the ninth, the Ott gave up another run to the Sharks to make it 23-2. But thanks to such a large lead he still closed out the game and earned his first save on the season.
The Terps came out hungry after a disappointing Big Ten tournament, and they showed why they were selected to host a regional tournament this season. The Terps finished the game with 20 hits as every Terp starter had a hit and scored one run--by the fourth inning--while only giving up one run and 11 hits to the Sharks. Ramsey gets his 11th win on the season while striking out 11 batters. The Terps batters were led by Petrutz who had a team high three hits and five RBIs. Ten different Terps collected at least one hit in the game, a full team effort.
After defeating Wake Forest 8-7 earlier in the day, UConn is up next for Maryland. The Terps will host the Huskies at "The Bob" at 7 PM.
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