Terp Baseball Hosts Pivotal Weekend Series With Wake Forest

April 22, 2005

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TERPS HOST DEMON DEACONS IN PIVOTAL CONFERENCE SERIES

With a chance to play themselves out of the play-in game of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, the Terps host Wake Forest in a pivotal ACC series this weekend. Wake currently sits at seventh in the conference standings with a 9-12 record, and Maryland is ninth with a 5-16 record. The top seven seeds don't play on the first day of the tournament, with Wake holding on to that last spot heading into the weekend.

Fox Sports Net will be televising Saturday's game live, and it will air locally on Comcast Sports. The game will also be featured on the Sunshine Sports Network in both Georgia (Atlanta area) and Florida. Audio broadcasts for all three games will again 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.

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS

Friday, April 22nd
LHP Chris Bowen (2-2, 3.07 ERA) vs. RHP Josh Ellis (4-4, 6.67 ERA)

Saturday, April 23rd
RHP Ben Pfinsgraff (4-2, 2.88 ERA) vs. RHP Charlie Mellies (2-3, 3.75 ERA)

Sunday, April 24th
RHP Chris Clem (1-6, 5.92 ERA) vs. RHP Brian Bach (1-1, 3.76 ERA)

PREVIEWING WAKE FOREST

2005 Record: 17-22 (9-12 Atlantic Coast Conference).
2004 Record: 17-33 (4-20 ACC).
All-Time Series: Maryland trails 49-81-0.
Last Meeting: Maryland 15, Wake 12 - May 25, 2004 (ACC Tournament).

The Demon Deacons turned some heads early in the season by sweeping Virginia in their first conference series of the season. Including that three-game sweep, Wake is 8-4 in home conference games and 1-8 in its three road series. Overall, the Demon Deacons are 15-7 at home and 1-14 on the road.

Third baseman Matt Antonelli has been one of Wake's top offensive threats this season, leading the team with 43 runs scored, 42 walks and a .477 on-base percentage. Catcher/designated hitter J.B. Tucker has been the Demon Deacons' top power threat and run producer, leading the team with 15 doubles, nine home runs, 91 total bases and a .558 slugging percentage. First baseman Brendan Enick leads the team with a .341 batting average, and shortstop Ben Ingold and center fielder Matt Miller are tied for the team lead with 12 stolen bases.

Saturday starter and twin brother of Terrapin catcher Dan Mellies, sophomore right-hander Charlie Mellies leads the Wake Forest pitching staff with 57.2 innings pitched and a 3.75 ERA. Friday starter Josh Ellis leads the team with four wins, but has a 6.67 ERA and an opponent batting average of .335. Relievers Kyle Young and Eric Niesen are both among the conference leaders in appearances, with 23 and 24, respectively.

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 average) ... Bowen made his first start of the season at Duke (4/16) and got a win by allowing just four hits and no earned runs in 6.0 innings ... Brett Cecil went a career-high 5.0 innings in relief of Sean Kane on Sunday at Duke (4/17) ... Cecil allowed just two hits and no runs and struck out five Blue Devil hitters ... Chris Clem has gone at least 6.0 innings in seven of his last eight starts ... Clem has averaged 2.6 runs of support in his last five starts ... Justin Hulse tied a career-high with 4.0 innings pitched in the series finale against No. 7 North Carolina ... in his last 17.0 innings, Hulse has walked just two batters ... 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 ... Ryan Moorer won the first game of his career after holding Coppin State to two hits and two runs over 5.0 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 has gotten three straight no-decisions, but has won all three of his decisions this season ... Sufczynski has given up two earned runs or less in five of his six starts ... Brad Taylor has a 16:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio ... Brett Tidball threw the Saturday portion of a suspended game at Georgia Tech (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
Redshirt freshman Taylor Baum made the first appearance of his career, going 0-for-1 against Coppin State (4/19) ... Chad Durakis leads the team with a .391 batting average with runners on base and a 56.9% success rate advancing runners ... Will Frazier became the school's career leader in total bases last weekend and now has 367 in his career ... the weekend before, Frazier set a new school record in extra-base hits (now has 85) ... Nick Jowers returned from a shin injury in the team's win over Coppin State ... Matt Maropis has five stolen bases in his last seven games and now leads the team 10 on the season ... Truan Mehl has 16 RBI in his last 20 games and has hits in 31 of the team's 40 games this season ... Dan Melvin leads the team with seven sacrifice bunts ... freshman Joe Palumbo is third on the team with 15 walks ... Palumbo has played four different positions this season: second base, third base, shortstop and right field ... Bobby Ryan had the team's first walk-off base hit of the season against Mount St. Mary's last week ... Elliot Singletary is currently tied for third in the ACC and ranks 32nd nationally with 16 doubles (0.42 per game) ... Singletary has walked four times in his last three games and now leads the team in walks (18), hit-by-pitches (8) and on-base percentage (.412) ... Jordan Wilson has driven in runs in 14 games this season, with Maryland going 10-4 in those games ... Wilson has seven RBI and five multi-hit efforts in his last seven games.

WILSON PRODUCING WINS

First baseman Jordan Wilson is tied for the team lead with 25 runs this season and has seven RBI in his last seven games. Wilson's production has paid huge dividends, as Maryland has a10-4 record in games when he drives in a run and 6-14 when he does not.

Despite an 0-for-5 day at UMBC on Wednesday, Wilson is still hitting .455 (15-for-33) with five multi-hit games, five extra-base hits and seven RBI in his last seven games. On Saturday against Duke (4/16) and Tuesday against Coppin State (4/19), Wilson tied a career-high with three runs batted in, with Maryland going on to win big in both games.

DURAKIS KEEPS HITTING

Freshman catcher Chad Durakis has emerged as one of the Terps' most consistent bats this season, and he is doing the job from behind the plate and at designated hitter. Durakis is hitting .297 for the season and is in the midst of the team's longest current hit streak at seven games.

Durakis is an aggressive hitter, having walked just three times this season, but his free swinging approach has yielded just 18 strikeouts in 128 at-bats. Though his power has yet to come, his compact and powerful build will no doubt produce some power numbers as his Maryland career moves along.

Currently, though, Durakis' strengths as a hitter are putting the ball in play and finding holes. He leads the team this season with a .391 average with runners on base and advances runners in a team-high 56.7% of his at-bats.

MEAGHER UNPHASED IN PRESSURE SITUATIONS

Junior left-hander Michael Meagher has come on to be one of the Terps' most reliable pitchers after missing the first five weeks of the season with shoulder stiffness. Meagher has yet to give up an earned run in seven appearances (8.1 innings), has allowed just three hits and has a batting average against of .103.

With a calm confidence when runners on base, Meagher has emerged as the team's best option to close out games. He features a fastball that can touch 90 and a breaking ball that he can and will throw for a strike in any count. Meagher has allowed opposing hitters just an .091 average with runners on base and has retired five of the 11 batters he's faced in that situation by strikeout.

FRESHMAN ARMS PITCH BEYOND THEIR YEARS

The Terrapin pitching staff has been a pleasant surprise all season long, led by a group of newcomers that should leave the program in safe hands for years to come. Left-hander Brett Cecil has been the most active of that group, making 11 appearances and three starts, and redshirt freshman Mike Sufczynski has emerged as the team's top starter in midweek games.

Cecil has pitched in every role this season. He started the season with 6.0 shutout innings and two saves in his first two appearances, and has since made three starts, two long relief appearances (3.0 + innings) and four short relief appearances. He is coming off a career-high 5.0 shutout innings at Duke, an appearance in which he got back to his early season form and dominated hitters.

Sufczynski is 3-0 this season and has been a steady performer in mid-week games all season. He's made six starts and has given up two earned runs or less in five of them, compiling a 3.22 earned run average in 36.1 innings.

Brett Tidball is a finesse pitcher who takes a very cerebral approach to pitching. He works the edges of the strike zone and uses both corners to effectively keep hitters off balance. He has given up just two runs in 10.0 innings (1.80 ERA) this season, highlighted by four hitless innings against the conference's top offense, Georgia Tech.

Right-hander Brett Jones and Brad Taylor have both shown promise, with Taylor posting one of the team's top ERAs at 2.57. Taylor has struck out 16 batters in 14.0 innings and has walked just one. He is a strike thrower that has a high ceiling as he gets stronger and adds more velocity.

Jones is a competitor who knows how to pitch. Like many pitchers in the conference, an appearance at Georgia Tech has inflated his ERA (7.71), but he has held hitters in check with just a .200 average in 7.0 innings.

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