April 30, 2005

Final Stats

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Maryland baseball scored six unanswered runs in the game's last three innings, but the late Terp rally fell short, as No. 4 Miami held on for a 12-8 in on Saturday night. Maryland out-hit Miami 14-12 and scored five ninth-inning runs, but it wasn't enough, as the Terps fell to 20-26 on the season and 6-20 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

Miami's big bats capitalized on four early Maryland errors and four unearned runs to go up 12-2 through six innings. In addition, Hurricane power hitter Ryan Braun had an at-bat extended by a foul ball that dropped in, and went on to hit a two-out, three-run home run that gave Miami a 9-2 lead in the fourth inning.

Elliot Singletary and Truan Mehl, hitting first and second in the Maryland lineup, were both 3-for-6 with two RBI, and the catching duo of Chad Durakis and Bobby Ryan went a combined 4-for-7 with three runs and an RBI to lead the Maryland offense.

Singletary, third on the nation's doubles list coming into the weekend, hit a pair of doubles to move his season total to a team-leading 21 for the season. Mehl hit an RBI double and an RBI single and was robbed of another extra-base hit when Miami center fielder, Danny Figueroa, tracked down a line drive to the left-center field gap.

Ryan had one of his best days at the plate, finishing the game 2-for-3 with a walk, RBI and run scored. The only out he made was on a line drive to the left field wall, which Miami outfielder Jon Jay ran down and caught as he ran into the left field wall.

Sean Kane made his most effective outing of the season, keeping the ball down and making key pitches to hold Miami scoreless in 2.0 innings. He was the only Terrapin pitcher to hold the Miami offense scoreless in consecutive innings, allowing just one base runner in the process.

Maryland struck early, scoring a run before an out was made in the first inning. Elliot Singletary lined a 2-2 pitch from Hurricane starter down the left field line for a lead-off double, and Truan Mehl singled three pitches later to score Singletary from second base.

Miami responded in a big way, scoring three runs in both the first and second innings. Ryan Braun hit an RBI single in the first inning and an RBI double in the second, and the Hurricanes hit two sacrifice flies in the first to score two more runs. In that first inning, Miami sacrificed three times (one sac bunt, two sac flies) in an inning for the first time in school history.

Maryland came back with a run of its own in the top of the second inning, to come within 3-2 after an inning and a half. Elliot Singletary hit his second double of the night, scoring Bobby Ryan from second base for his 19th RBI of the season. Ryan reached on a leadoff walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Joe Palumbo, before scoring on Singletary's line drive down the left field line.

Miami took a 6-2 lead after its second consecutive three-run inning and added on with a total of nine unanswered runs. In addition to Braun's RBI double in the second, the Hurricanes scored runs on an RBI single by Paco Figueroa and a fielding error by shortstop Elliot Singletary (unearned run).

Braun added to his big night with a three-run home run in the fourth inning, and the Hurricanes added another unearned run on an RBI groundout by Walter Diaz.

Diaz was responsible for all of Miami's scoring in the bottom of the sixth inning, connecting on a two-run home run to left field. Jon Jay led off the inning with a double off the left field wall, and Diaz brought him around with his fifth home run of the season.

Maryland got back on the board in the top of the seventh inning, turning a Chad Durakis lead-off double into its third run of the game. Durakis lined a 1-1 pitch from Hurricane reliever, John McLean, down the right field line. Matt Maropis followed with a hard groundball up the middle that got past the new Miami shortstop, Walter Diaz, and into right field. Durakis came around to score an unearned run on the play, moving the score to 12-3 through seven innings.

The Terps rallied to score five runs off Miami reliever Danny Gil in the top of the ninth inning. Chad Durakis started things off with a leadoff walk, and Jason Von Behren followed with another five-pitch walk to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Pinch-hitter Taylor Baum hit a hard chopper up the middle and into center field for his first career hit, loading the bases with no outs. Bobby Ryan brought a run in with sacrifice fly to the warning track in right field, and Elliot Singletary followed with an RBI single into left field. Truan Mehl hit a ground rule double into left-center field to score Baum, and Nick Jowers capped off the Maryland scoring with a two-run single up the middle. Vince Bongiovanni got the last out of the inning to end the Maryland threat, closing out a 12-8 Miami win.

With wins in the first two games of the series and a Georgia Tech loss today (6-5 to Clemson), the Hurricanes moved into the top spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings. The Terps will look to play the role of spoiler in tomorrow's series finale, when Chris Clem (1-6, 5.92 ERA) faces Miami right-hander Ricky Orta (6-3, 4.91 ERA).