Maryland Baseball Hosts Mount St. Mary's Tonight At 7 p.m.

April 13, 2005

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TERPS CLOSE HOMESTAND WITH MOUNT ST. MARY'S

Coming off a tough weekend set against No. 7 North Carolina, the Terps close a five-game home set with a non-conference game against Mount St. Mary's. Mike Sufczynski will be looking to win his fourth straight decision when the Mountaineers come to Shipley Field at 7 p.m.

Audio broadcasts for each game will be available on www.wmucsports.com, and live stats will be available by logging on to the www.umterps.com baseball site.

Information can now be submitted to join an online newsletter mailing list. Titled "The Maryland Baseball Bulletin", the newsletter is sent to you each time new information is posted to the Maryland website. This includes weekend previews, game recaps, feature stories and more.

PREVIEWING THE MOUNT

2005 Record: 10-15 (4-4 Northeast Conference).
2004 Record: 25-18 (10-13 NEC).
Last Meeting: Mount St. Mary's 9, Maryland 2 - April 17, 2001.

Mount St. Mary's enters Wednesday's non-conference game with a 10-15 overall record and a 4-4 record in the Northeast Conference. The Mountaineers are 4-3 on the road this season, including wins in three of their last four games away from home. Today's game will be the team's fifth in five days, and the first of four straight road games.

Collectively, the Mountaineer offense is hitting .253 through its first 24 games and is averaging 4.5 runs per game. Shortstop Mike Gioioso leads the team with a .362 batting average, 16 runs and a .492 on-base percentage - the highest on either team. Adam Schlenoff and Stephen Fay, the team's top two options behind the plate, provide a couple of power bats to the Mountaineer offense. Schlenoff leads the team with seven doubles and 11 extra-base hits, and Fay has gone yard a team-high five times on his way to a .636 slugging percentage. Joseph Hayes is the team's top run producer (15 RBI), and with six stolen bases, Justus Yocum is the team's top baserunning threat.

The Mount's pitching staff has a combined 6.38 ERA and has allowed opponents to hit .322 for the season. Opponents average 1.85 baserunners per inning against Mountaineer pitching and have a .457 slugging percentage. Dustin Pease and Andrew Germuth both have sub-3.00 ERAs, and Pease leads the team with a 2.17 ERA and 25:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Four Mountaineer relievers have recorded saves this season, led by Steve Stoner's two.

CURRENT STATS AND TRENDS

Pitching
Chris Bowen hasn't allowed an earned run in 11.0 innings at home this season and has given up just four hits in 33 at-bats at Shipley Field (.121) ... On Friday against North Carolina, senior Chris Clem became the 10th Terrapin pitcher in school history to record 200 career strikeouts ... Justin Hulse tied a career-high with 4.0 innings pitched against North Carolina on Sunday ... in his last 13.2 innings, Hulse has walked just one batter ... junior Michael Meagher seems to have emerged as the team's closer, having recorded two saves and a third in the team's exhibition win over the Bowie Baysox ... he hasn't allowed a hit in 4.1 innings and has an 8:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio ... Ryan Moorer put together the best outing of his career against the Bowie Baysox last Tuesday ... although the numbers didn't count towards his season stats, he picked up a win by allowing four hits and no earned runs over 5.0 strong innings ... Ben Pfinsgraff is on a run of four straight quality starts (6.0+ innings, three or fewer earned runs) and leads the team with six on the season ... six of his nine starts have been decided by two runs or less, and he has walked more than one batter in just one of his starts ... Mike Sufczynski got a no-decision against UMBC last Wednesday, but has won all three of his decisions this season ... Brad Taylor has a 15:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio ... Brett Tidball threw the Saturday portion of a suspended game at Georgia Tech last week (4/1-4/2) and didn't allow a hit in 4.0 scoreless innings ... he struck out three and retired the last 12 batters he faced.

Offense
Chad Durakis has been hit by five pitches in his last nine games ... Durakis leads the team with 60% success rate advancing runners ... Will Frazier has eight doubles in his last 10 games and has scored 17 runs in his last 15 games ... Frazier has struck out just once in his last 26 plate appearances ... Nick Jowers missed the North Carolina series after getting stitches in his shin, but has hits in five of his last six games ... Matt Maropis has five doubles, five RBI and two stolen bases in his last five games ... over those games, Maropis has seen time at first base, third base and right field ... Truan Mehl has 11 RBI in his last 14 games and has hits in 27 of the team's 34 games this season ... Dan Melvin leads the team with six sacrifice bunts ... freshman Joe Palumbo is tied for second on the team with 13 walks and has struck out just five times ... last week against UMBC, he replaced an injured Nick Jowers in right field ... it was the third position he's played this season ... all eight of Bobby Ryan's hits this season have come in multi-hit games (four games with two hits) ... Ryan walked three times in the North Carolina series and now has eight walks in his last nine games... Elliot Singletary is currently second in the ACC in doubles, averaging 0.45 per game ... with all that time spent in scoring position, Singletary has come around to score 10 times in his last 13 games and 21 times this season ... Jordan Wilson has driven in runs in 11 games this season, with Maryland going 8-3 in those games ... Wilson tied a career-high with three runs in consecutive games last week (3/30 vs. Temple, 4/1 at Georgia Tech).

FINDING MAROPIS TIME

Head coach Terry Rupp is finding ways to get junior Matt Maropis at-bats. He started the year at second base, but had some early defensive issues and starting finding time as a designated hitter. Maropis has been getting work at first base in the past week and played some innings there in the final game of the Georgia Tech series. In the team's exhibition game against the Bowie Baysox, he started and played all seven innings at third base, then started at third base against UMBC on Wednesday.

In the home series against North Carolina (4/8-4/10), Maropis started all three games in the place of injured Nick Jowers in right field. He adjusted well to yet another new position and continued to hit in the series. In his last seven games overall, Maropis is 8-for-16 with five doubles, five RBI and four runs scored. And defensively, he looks comfortable at both third and right field, with that versatility providing more lineup options and ways to get Maropis' bat going.

In 2004, Maropis broke out with a .353 batting average, 13 stolen bases and a .498 slugging percentage, but got out of the gates slowly in 2005. But with five doubles, five runs and two stolen bases in his last five games, he seems to be finding his stroke quickly. The addition of his hot bat to the Maryland lineup could give the Terps an added push in the second half of the season.

THE ACE OF EXTRA BASE

Senior Will Frazier has `seen the [swing away] sign' throughout his four-year Maryland career, and he's responded by putting his name on eight of the school's career record lists. Most recently, he broke the program's extra-base hit record and now sits at 83 and counting for his career.

Tied with Paul Schager with 81 extra-base hits in his career, Frazier connected on a 91 mph offering from North Carolina All-American Daniel Bard and sent it over the left-center field wall. With the blast, Frazier moved to the top of the school's extra-base hits list, extended a hitting streak to a team season-high 14 games and became the fifth Terrapin in school history to hit 30 career home runs.

Maryland Baseball Hosts Mount St. Mary's Tonight At 7 p.m.

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