Maryland sweeps Baylor on Opening Weekend

WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball fell to Maryland once again on Sunday afternoon to start the season 0-3. Maryland busted the game wide open in the middle innings scoring in each of the 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, and the 8^th. 

In the bottom of the 1st, Tre Richardson gave Baylor the first lead of the series, scoring on a passed ball after hitting a sharp single to left, earlier in the inning. 

Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo doubled in the bottom of the 3rd and scored on a ground out by Richardson tying the game at 2-2. 

Preseason All-American, Matt Shaw continued his fantastic weekend for Maryland, homering in the top of the 5th on Jake Jackson to give the Terps the 4-2 lead. 

A fielder’s choice got Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo on base in the bottom of the 5th. He came around to score after a Tre Richardson single, closing the gap to 5-3 Maryland. 

Matt Shaw homered again in the 7th to put the Maryland lead (7-3) out of reach, this time off of Brett Garcia. 

Final: Maryland 8 - Baylor 4

W: Jason Savacool (1-0) L: Jake Jackson (0-1)

POTG: Tre Richardson 2-4, 2 RBI, R

Saturday

The Baylor bats showed some life in the later innings, but it was not enough to prevail. The Bears lost 9-5 and left 11 batters stranded.

Blake Helton struggled to find his command early on Saturday afternoon. Maryland capitalized scoring four runs in the top of the 1st, two on an error by the third baseman Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo. Maryland left fielder, Bobby Zmarzlak homered to deep center to start the 3rd, ending Helton’s day at 2 IP, 5 R (2 ER), 3 BB, and 3 SO’s.

Freshman catcher, Cortlan Castle got his college career off to a great start with a 2 RBI single into left field, scoring the first Baylor runs of the season.

The bottom of the 9th was the best inning the Bears have had so far this season. Castle led off with a single into right field. Jack Pineda followed with a walk and Tre Richardson singled into centerfield loading the bases. Jared McKenzie walked in a run, closing the Maryland lead to 9-4 with no outs. Kyle Nevin grounded out to short, scoring Tre Richardson (9-5 Maryland). Jacob Schoenvogel pinch-hit for Balsano and struck out swinging with the bases loaded. Chase Wehsener ended the game grounding out to second and ending the Baylor comeback.

Final: Maryland 9 - Baylor 5

W: Ryan Ramsey (1-0) L: Blake Helton (0-1) 

POTG: Kyle Nevin 2-5, RBI, 2 R.

Nevin also had the play of the game:

Friday

Friday night was a pitching duel between two excellent aces, Nick Dean of Maryland and Tyler Thomas of Baylor. Ultimately, Nick Dean won the duel and Maryland prevailed with a 4-0 win on opening day.

Luke Shilger opened the game with a double to left-center. Chris Alleyne followed with a triple to deep center and later scored on a ground-out. Maryland got out to a quick 2-0 start. 

Tyler Thomas settled in and pitched fantastically for the rest of the evening, carving up the Maryland lineup. Thomas ended with 6 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 9 SO, and 1 BB.

Nick Dean shined giving up only 4 hits in 7 innings pitched and striking out 8 for the Terps. Jared McKenzie was the only Baylor hitter to find any sort of success on Friday night going 2-3 with a walk. 

Final: Maryland 4 - Baylor 0

W: Nick Dean (1-0) L: Tyler Thomas (0-1)

POTG: Jared McKenzie 2-3, 2B, BB

TOP QUOTES

When asked, “What do you take away from this?” Coach Rodriguez said, “We definitely have things we can improve on. I think the frustrating part was we did not play well on the defensive part of it... I thought we did a really good job with maintaining some good at-bats. I thought pitchers did an okay job keeping us in the ballgame. But I thought the defensive mistakes kind of cost us today.”

Coach Rodriguez was encouraged from what he saw from his team this weekend against a very solid Maryland ballclub. But he acknowledged that the defensive miscues were a major factor in contributing to the loss.

Over the weekend, Baylor had 6 errors compared to Maryland’s 1. The defense will look to clean things up heading into next week. 

Tre Richardson remained positive when asked about the morale of the clubhouse after this weekend. He said, “We all understand that we are not going to win every game... It’s a long season. The trick is always being positive.”

The Bears must put this series behind them, take Richardson’s advice, and look to next week’s contests.

WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor looks to bounce back against Houston Baptist at 6:30 p.m. CT, Tuesday, February 22, at Baylor Ballpark.