Maryland
Duke
Terps Downed By Duke, 10-9, At ACC Baseball Championships
5/21/2002 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 21, 2002
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Maryland baseball squad ended up on the losing end of a slugfest in the opening game of the ACC Baseball Championship Tournament. Despite a two-run, two-RBI performance from freshman Will Frazier (Mitchellville, Md.) and the 19th home run of the year from junior John McCurdy (Crofton, Md.), the Terrapins fell to Duke, 10-9, and move to 34-23 on the season.
Senior right fielder Matt Swope's (New Carrolton, Md.) RBI-triple and run scored in the bottom of the first gave Maryland their only lead of the game at 2-1. Five Blue Devil runs on three hits and a pair of Terp miscues in the second had the Terps playing catch-up from a 6-2 deficit. Still, the Terrapins battled to cut the lead to one in the third, and then again in the sixth, but fell just short in their comeback effort.
The Terps scored a run in the second on a Daryl Whitmer (Waldorf, Md.) RBI-single, and two runs in the third on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Anthony Buffone (Manalapan, N.J.) and a Frazier base knock. Duke answered with a pair of runs in the fourth, and came up with double-play balls in the fourth and fifth when the Terps had bases loaded, only sacrificing one run. Meanwhile, single Blue Devil scores in the fifth and sixth staked Duke to a 10-6 lead as the Terrapins came to bat in the bottom of the inning.
All-America and Dick Howser Award candidate McCurdy led off with his solo shot in the bottom of the sixth, tying Alex Pauley (19 in 1985) for the second-most home runs in a single season by a Terrapin. After Duke reliever Paul DeMarco retired the next two batters on strikes, Buffone sparked a two-out rally with a double to left center. Frazier drove in his second run of the day with a RBI-single to right, and scored on a balk after advancing to third on a single by senior Kevin McDonald (Rockaway, N.J.).
What was once an offensive display became a ptichers'duel over the final three innings, as DeMarco and Maryland's Steve Schmoll (Rockville, Md.) refused to yield any further runs. DeMarco was credited with the victory after allowing three runs on eight hits across the final six innings, while rookie Terp starter Sean Kane (West Chester, Pa.) took the loss and fell to 1-1 on the season.
Whitmer finished 3-for-5 for the Terps with a RBI and a run scored, while McCurdy and McDonald contributed two hits apiece. The Terrapins stranded 11 runners in the game, which proved to be the difference.
"We had some chances to really break the game open, but we let them get away from us," said second-year Maryland head coach Terry Rupp, who turned his Terps around from a 17-37 record a season ago to a 34-23 campaign in 2002. "We had runners in scoring position all night long, but we couldn't get the hits to break the [game] open."
