Terp Baseball Hosts UMBC Wednesday At 7 p.m.

April 6, 2005

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TERPS HOST UMBC IN NON-CONFERENCE ACTION

Coming off encouraging wins wins over No. 1 Georgia Tech and the Bowie Baysox (exhibition), Maryland baseball will host UMBC for the second time this season. Mike Sufczynski will be looking for a fourth straight mid-week win, and the Terps will be looking to come within one game of .500.

The game will be broadcasted on www.wmucsports.com, 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 RETRIEVERS

2005 Record: 5-13 (0-0 America East).
2004 Record: 14-38 (6-15 America East).
All-Time Series: Maryland leads, 36-12-0.
Last Meeting: Maryland 8, UMBC 6 - 3/29/05.

In the second of three meetings this season, UMBC returns to College Park with a 5-13 overall record. In the teams' first meeting of the season, Maryland came back from a 6-1 deficit to pull out an 8-6 win. Jason Von Behren was the catalyst of the Terp rally, tying the game up with a bases loaded double in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Sophomore catcher Tom Rinaldi is leading the UMBC offense with a .383 batting average and is second on the team with a .489 slugging percentage. First baseman Kyle Wildasin, who scored two runs in the first meeting, is hitting .362 with a team-high 25 hits. Alex Laddbush, Matt Higgins, Ian Carman and Zach Clark are each hitting over .280 for an offense that has a collective .261 average.

The Retriever pitching staff has an ERA just under 6.00 for the season, having allowed 203 hits and 101 earned runs in 152.2 innings. Only one UMBC pitcher has an ERA below 3.00, and the staff has a collective opponent batting average of .320 for the season. Blake Phipps, the losing pitcher in the Mar. 29 meeting leads the team with eight appearances, and Jon Pavlis has a team-high two wins.

CURRENT STATS AND TRENDS

Pitching
Senior Chris Clem currently sits at 199 career strikeouts, one shy of becoming the 10th Terrapin pitcher in school history to record 200 career K's ... Justin Hulse has walked one batter in his last 8.0 innings ... junior Michael Meagher seems to have emerged as the team's closer, having recorded saves in his last two appearances ... he has retired 10 straight batters and has seven strikeouts and no walks for the season ... scouts scrambled to find their radar guns and position themselves behind home plate to watch Meagher pick up his first career save against Temple ... Ryan Moorer put together the best outing of his career against the Bowie Baysox on 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 leads the team with five quality starts this season (6.0+ innings, three or fewer earned runs) ... five of his eight starts have been in one-run games, and the team is 3-0 when he goes at least 7.0 innings ... Mike Sufczynski won his third straight start against Temple, giving up two earned runs in 5.1 innings ... Brad Taylor struck out the side in one inning in the series finale against Clemson (3/26), moving his strikeout-to-walk ratio to 14:1 this season ... 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 in lowering his season ERA to 1.23.

Offense
Chad Durakis had a 12-game hit streak snapped in the second game of the Georgia Tech series, but has hits in 13 of his last 14 games and runs in four of his last five ... Will Frazier is starting to heat up, raising his average 70 points (.222 to .292) over a current 11-game hit streak ... this past week, Frazier became just the second player in school history to record 200 hits and 50 doubles in his career ... Nick Jowers has driven in a run in four of his last five games ... Matt Maropis doubled his season double total in three at-bats against Georgia Tech over the weekend ... Maropis had two doubles in his first appearance at first base and now has hits in three of his last four at-bats ... Truan Mehl has hits in 25 of the team's 30 games this season ... he has reached base in eight of his last nine plate appearances and has seven RBI in his last 10 games ... Dan Melvin has three multi-hit efforts in his last five games and has struck out just once in his last 22 at-bats ... freshman Joe Palumbo leads the team with 13 walks and has struck out just five times ... his walks account for 13 of his 20 times on base (65 percent) ... all eight of Bobby Ryan's hits this season have come in multi-hit games (four games with two hits) ... Elliot Singletary currently has a season-high five-game hit streak ... Singletary has scored nine runs in his last nine games and is tied for the team lead with 20 runs on the 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).

PFINSGRAFF NAMED ACC PITCHER OF THE WEEK

Junior right-hander Ben Pfinsgraff was named the Atlantic Coast Conference's Co-Pitcher of the Week this week after leading the Terps to a win over then-No. 1 Georgia Tech on Saturday. Pfinsgraff threw a season-high 131 pitches and held the conference's top offense to just five hits and one run in 7.2 gutsy innings.

Making Pfinsgraff's more amazing is the fact that he walked more batters in the game (six) than he had in his previous seven starts combined (five). He prevented Tech, an offense that picks up steam and puts up big numbers quickly, from coming through with a big hit in one of the biggest wins in program history.

MEHL PACING THE TERP OFFENSE

Though he had a team-best 13-game hit streak snapped in the first game of the Georgia Tech series (4/1), senior outfielder Truan Mehl responded in a big way in the remaining two games of the series. In Saturday's big win, Mehl drove in both of Maryland's runs, had three hits in three at-bats and walked once. In the Sunday series finale, he came through with four hits in five at-bats, including his first home run of the season - a solo shot in the fourth inning.

Mehl now leads the Maryland offense in most offensive categories, including: batting average (.361), hits (44), extra-base hits (14), RBI (18), total bases (63), slugging (.516), on-base percentage (.424) and stolen bases (six). He has been a consistent force at the top of the lineup all season, having hits in 25 of the team's 30 games this season.

FINDING MAROPIS TIME IN THE INFIELD

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 win over the Bowie Baysox, he started and played all seven innings at third base.

In that game, Maropis made several agile plays and scored Maryland's first of two runs with an RBI groundout. He seems more comfortable making the throw across the diamond than the short throw from second base to first, and he has more agility and quickness than any of the team's other options at third.

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 hits in three of his last four at-bats, two of which were doubles, 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.

JOWERS PRODUCING IN DIFFERENT WAYS

With a knee injury to Brian Jarosinski freeing up time in the outfield, freshman Nick Jowers has seized the opportunity and made 13 straight starts in both center and right field. The first 10 of those were in center field, where he is a quick and natural defender, and the last three have been in right field. The move has allowed Truan Mehl, the team's rangiest defender, to make a switch to center field.

Jowers made an immediate impact in the Terps lineup, putting together a six-game hit streak and walking five times in his first seven games. His streak was snapped with a hitless doubleheader against Clemson, but he's come back with at least one hit and RBI in four of his last five games.

FRAZIER REACHES CAREER MILESTONES

With a single in five at-bats against UMBC, senior outfielder Will Frazier went over the 200 hit mark in his Maryland career. He became just the eighth Terp to do so and moved into seventh place on the Maryland career hits list with 203.

Frazier has over half of his 35 hits over his last 11 games, raising his average 70 points over that span (.222 to .292). He has five doubles in his last six games, including the 49th and 50th of his career in the series opener at Georgia Tech (4/1).

With the two milestones, Frazier became just the second Terp in school history to record 200 career hits and 50 career doubles. He joined former teammate Anthony Buffone - the career leader in both categories (59 doubles, 272 hits).

OFFENSE FINDS ITS STRIDE

In two non-conference wins last week, the Maryland bats combined to pound out 28 hits and score 19 runs. They had double digit hits for the third time in four games and fifth time in seven. The hot bats of Elliot Singletary, Will Frazier, Truan Mehl and Chad Durakis have been a huge factor in the current hot streak, but a change in offensive approach has led to more offensive consistency and fluidity. The team is bunting, sacrificing and hitting and running more, putting pressure on opposing defenses and giving players more opportunities to drive in runs. Elliot Singletary and Dan Melvin, commonly first and second in the Terp lineup, have led that charge with a combined nine sacrifice bunts.

SINGLETARY BRUISES OPPOSING PITCHERS, HIMSELF

Since returning to the Maryland lineup against Virginia Tech, senior Elliot Singletary has kept finding ways to get on base and score runs. He now has a team-leading 11 doubles, putting himself in scoring position enough to also have scored a team-high 20 runs. Over that stretch, Singletary has reached base in 22 of 24 games, including five by hit by pitch and 10 by walk.

On Wednesday against Temple, Singletary found his way on base in all five of his plate appearances. He hit a single, walked twice and was hit by two pitches on his way to tying a career-high with three runs scored. He also stole two bases and continued to play sharp defense at second base.

FRAZIER MOVING UP MARYLAND ALL-TIME LISTS

Coming off his most productive season as a Terp, senior Will Frazier is among the program's top 10 on three career batting lists. He is second with 50 career doubles, third with 79 extra-base hits and fifth with 29 career home runs. If he can duplicate last year's career-best numbers, Frazier would leave College Park as Maryland's all-time leader in doubles and extra-base hits, with an outside chance at home runs.

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