Maryland
New York Tech
Holy Schmoll-y!
4/6/2003 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 6, 2003
College Park, Md. - Senior Steve Schmoll (3-3) tossed his second complete game this week and struck out 10 as the Maryland Terrapins (11-17, 0-8 ACC) completed a series sweep of New York Tech (5-14) with a 5-0 victory.
In two starts this week, Schmoll has pitched 18 scoreless innings while allowing just eight hits, to go along with 25 strikeouts and three walks. On Tuesday, April 1, Schmoll struck out 15 and scattered six hits in a 4-0 victory over West Virginia.
The senior is having an incredible year after beginning the season as the team's closer. He has struck out 10 or more in all five of his starts, and has 82 strikeouts in 50.2 innings, as well as just 11 walks. Opponents are hitting a meager .216 off of the right hander, who keeps hitters on their toes by throwing from three different arm angles.
Schmoll's strikeouts per nine innings (14.56) is tops in the Atlantic Coast Conference and is on pace to break former Terp Jerry Vezendy's 30-year-old Maryland strikeouts per nine innings record. He is also on pace to shatter Eric Milton's single-season Terp record of 118 strikeouts.
The win was just his third of the year, however, as he has received the least run support of any Terp pitcher, a statistic that was painfully evident until the eighth inning of Sunday's game.
New York Tech starter Andrew Karkoulas (1-4), who played the first two games of the series as the Bears' centerfielder, matched Schmoll pitch-for-pitch after allowing the first two Maryland hitters of the game to reach base.
Karkoulas was brilliant until the eighth inning, when a two-out error by second baseman Mike MacMillan allowed the wheels to come off. The Terps reeled off four straight hits, including the go-ahead single by Justin Maxwell (Olney, Md.), a two-run double by pinch-hitter Will Frazier (Mitchellville, Md.) and a two-run triple by Ray Gemmill (Silver Spring, Md.). None of the five runs were earned.
The Terps are 5-0 in April, and have won five games in a row and six of their last eight. The pitching staff had a fantastic week, allowing a total of just five runs in five games.
Maxwell had a breakout week as well, hitting .388 with four home runs, eight runs batted in and two stolen bases. The sophomore has already doubled his home run total of 2002, passed his stolen base total, and tied his RBI total with 26 games left to play.
The Terps will next take on Georgetown for a 7:00 p.m. game at Shipley Field, the fourth of eight consecutive home games for Maryland.
