The Terps gave up two runs in the ninth inning.
Maryland baseball catcher Alex Calarco hit what looked like the lead-taking home run over No. 15 Oregon in the eighth inning. He started celebrating while the home crowd erupted, but the ball fell just short of the wall.
Just a few pitches later, senior Jacob Orr made up for it in the Terps’ next at bat, delivering a solo home run to left field to give Maryland its first lead. However, in the ninth inning, junior Drew Smith responded for Oregon with an RBI double and stole third base, allowing him to score the lead-taking run on a sacrifice fly.
Maryland came close to tying it with three straight hits deep into the outfield, but all three were caught, as Oregon came out on top, 5-4.
“You look at a really tough season, we could flip four or five wins at least with some of these tough losses,” head coach Matt Swope said.
After Friday’s game was canceled due to weather, Maryland (15-20, 3-10 Big Ten) and Oregon (23-9, 11-5 Big Ten) needed long outings from its starters, with a double-header scheduled for Sunday.
Both starters delivered for their teams, as junior Grayson Grinsell pitched 5.2 innings. He allowed three hits, two earned runs, six walks and five strikeouts for the Ducks. Meanwhile, redshirt sophomore Kyle McCoy had his longest outing in conference play for Maryland. He pitched seven innings, allowing five hits, three runs — two of which were earned — and struck out six batters.
Both pitchers dealt through two innings, but this changed in the third inning, as both teams added runs. After walking Oregon’s top base stealer in Mason Neville, junior Dominic Hellman ripped a double and scored Neville, who got a head start on his steal attempt. A passed ball advanced Hellman, as Jacob Walsh drove him in with an infield groundout.
Sophomore Liam Willson recorded the Terps’ first hit in the third inning, while Eddie Hacopian kept it just fair down the left field line, scoring a sliding Wilson from first. Sophomore Aden Hill walked, putting traffic on the base paths, but a successful pickoff attempt at second followed, as Grinsell escaped the jam to stay ahead 2-1.
McCoy looked to have found his groove again, striking out two batters to open the fourth inning, but Smith’s solo home run put the Ducks up two. Grinsell walked two Maryland hitters, but struck out three more to keep the Ducks up two runs after four.
Maryland chipped away at the Ducks’ lead in the fifth, as Hill’s solo home run to right field got the Terps within one. Grinsell hit the next batter, Calarco, ending his outing.
McCoy returned for the seventh inning and put himself in a jam. After walking Smith, sophomore Ryan Cooney doubled to put both runners in scoring position. However, Oregon’s blunder on the base paths allowed Maryland to get the lead runner out, forcing a groundout two pitches later to end the inning with no damage taken.
“He’s an ultra competitor,” Swope said about McCoy. “I think he showed that again today, which is another really good start for us.”
That sequence was a massive boost for the Terps, as Eddie Hacopian opened the bottom of the seventh inning with a game-tying solo home run. Orr added another in the eighth inning to give the Terps the lead, while freshman Cristofer Cespedes stayed in for his first save opportunity.
However, Cespedes struggled, as the Ducks tagged him for two runs to take the lead, while three straight fly-outs by the Terps sealed the loss.
“Can’t walk the lead-off guy there in that ninth inning,” Swope said. “But Cespedes, it’s his first time in that closer role and he’ll learn from it.”
Three things to know
1. Huge opportunity was blown. Maryland had a chance to win against its second ranked opponent and start a winning streak, but came up just short.
2. Another strong McCoy start ends in a loss. Maryland lost another close game with McCoy on the mound, as uncertainty looms regarding the rest of the rotation.
3. Grinsell’s command. Oregon’s starting pitcher came in with just 13 walks in 45 innings pitched coming into Saturday’s matchup against Maryland. However, he walked six batters in Saturday’s outing.