Maryland Baseball Finishes Regular Season Play With Two Games Against Longwood

May 10, 2005

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MARYLAND BASEBALL FINISHES REGULAR SEASON WITH TWO GAMES AGAINST LONGWOOD

Maryland baseball heads into the final week of its regular season having just finished up conference play with a weekend home series against No. 15 Florida State. The Terps host the Lancers of Longwood in the schools' first-ever meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, looking to improve on their 15-7 non-conference record. Mike Sufczynski (4-1, 2.98 ERA) will take the mound against Longwood's Clay Horn (1-7, 4.74 ERA).

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

After Maryland closes out its regular season on Wednesday against Longwood, the team will have a 13-day layoff before traveling to Jacksonville, Fla. for the 2005 ACC Baseball Tournament. Because of the school's final week, Maryland played through conference play without an off-week and is the first team to finish its conference season.

PREVIEWING LONGWOOD

2005 Record: 15-27 (Independent).
2004 Record:31-16 (Independent).
All-Time Series: First-ever meeting between schools.

Longwood comes into this week's games against Maryland with a 15-27 overall record, including a 5-22 mark in road games. A provisional Division I institution, Longwood is an independent school that does not play a conference schedule. The Lancers are coming off a doubleheader sweet by Delaware State on Monday and come to College Park having lost four of their last five games.

The Longwood offense has been solid this season behind freshman outfielder Louis Ullrich and sophomore first baseman/designated hitter Charlie Yarbrough. Ullrich is leading the team with a .387 average, .594 slugging percentage and .431 on-base percentage, while Yarbrough has been one of the team's top run producers. The sophomore has team-highs of six home runs, 17 extra-base hits, 33 RBI and 80 total bases. Chris Balus is hitting .363 with 25 stolen bases and 34 runs scored, and Tyler Ames has struck out just eight times in 180 plate appearances.

Brian McCullough leads the Longwood pitching staff this season with four wins and a 3.98 ERA. He has made 19 appearances overall, including 13 out of the Lancer bullpen. No Longwood pitcher who has thrown more than one inning has an ERA below 4.00, but the staff as a whole has a respectable 5.38 team ERA. Tuesday's probable starter, Clay Horn, has just a 1-7 record, but is allowing opponents to hit just .247 in 38.0 innings of service. Rob Moody has made a team-high 20 relief appearances, and John Farrell leads Longwood with 55 strikeouts and 65.2 innings pitched.

CURRENT STATS AND TRENDS

Pitching
Josh Andrews started Maryland's `staff day' at Miami on Friday (4/29) and held the Hurricanes scoreless in the first inning for just the 12th time all season ... including that game and a three-inning start against Towson last week, Andrews has a 2.00 ERA in three starts in 2005 ... Brett Cecil has given up one extra-base hit and two runs in his last 13.1 innings and has a 1.93 ERA in the 14 appearances in which he walks less than two batters ... Chris Clem has gone at least 6.0 innings in 10 of his last 11 starts and has walked two batters or less in 10 of his 12 starts on the season ... Clem is now just 3.0 innings shy of school record holder John Rayne (1989-92, 294.0) ... With a team-high 26 appearances this season, Justin Hulse not only tied for sixth in the ACC, but is now tied for seventh on Maryland's single season appearances list ... last season, Hulse climbed to the top of that list with a school-record 28 appearances ... senior Sean Kane retired 10 straight batters between a two-inning appearance at Miami and a season-high five-inning appearance against Towson ... he was the only Terp pitcher to hold Miami scoreless in consecutive innings in the game, and he allowed just three hits in the team's loss to Towson ... Michael Meagher has allowed zero earned runs in 12 of his 13 appearances this season ... Seth Overbey has given up one extra-base hit in his last 8.2 innings, after allowing 10 in his first 11.1 innings this season ... Ben Pfinsgraff leads the team with six quality starts this season ... seven of his 10 starts have been decided by two runs or less, and he has walked more than one batter in just two of his starts ... Mike Sufczynski dropped the first decision of his career last Wednesday against Towson, falling to 4-1 with a 2.98 ERA in 2005 ... Sufczynski has given up two earned runs or less in seven of his eight starts ... Brett Tidball leads the team with an average of 1.38 walks per nine innings and is second on the team with a .176 opponent batting average.

Offense
Redshirt freshman Taylor Baum got his first career hit at Miami (4/30) and followed it up with his first career home run against Towson last Wednesday (5/4) ... Chad Durakis leads the team with 10 hit-by-pitches and a 76.9% success rate scoring runners from third base with less than two outs (10 RBI in 13 opportunities) ... Will Frazier tied a school record with his 59th career double over the weekend ... Frazier is among the top three on seven career batting lists: at-bats (3rd, 775), hits (3rd, 234), doubles (t-1st, 59), home runs (t-2nd, 32), extra-base hits (1st, 91) and total bases (1st, 389) ... Matt Maropis has successfully stolen 12 straight bases and now leads the team with 15 on the season ... Maropis stole 14 bases in 2004 and is now 10th on the Maryland career steals list with 30 ... Truan Mehl leads the ACC with 45 hits in conference play and is third with 78 hits on the season ... those 78 hits are good for 10th on Maryland's single season list ... Dan Melvin is expected to miss about two weeks with a foot injury ... freshman Joe Palumbo set a new career-high with four hits in the series finale at Miami (5/1), doubling his previous career-best of two hits ... Palumbo is tied for third on the team with 16 walks ... Bobby Ryan has walked 16 times in 30 games and is leading the team with 0.50 walks per game ... Elliot Singletary leads the ACC and is tied for third in the nation in doubles per game (0.49/g) ... Singletary enters the week second on the Maryland single season doubles list with 23 ... Jason Von Behren has hits in four straight games, raising his batting average 30 points over that span (.207 to .237) ... Maryland is 12-4 when Jordan Wilson drives in a run and just 7-23 when he does not collect an RBI.

HOME COOKIN'

With the completion of Shipley Field for the 2005 season, Maryland hitters and fielders have been quick to capitalize on its home new found home field advantage. Five Terrapin hitters are hitting over .330 at The Ship, and two more, Jason Von Behren and Brian Jarosinski, are hitting at least .310.

Truan Mehl is actually hitting at a higher clip on the road (.385), but has a team-high .350 batting average at Shipley Field. Will Frazier is hitting .342 with six home runs and a big .613 slugging percentage, and leadoff hitter Elliot Singletary has a .452 on-base percentage. 12 of Matt Maropis' 15 stolen bases and nine of his 12 doubles have come at Shipley Field, and Jarosinski and Von Behren are both hitting over 100 points higher at home.

Not only has the offense been stellar in home games this season, but the defense has performed better. With 56 errors in 28 home games and 54 in 21 road games, Terp defenders' have fielded 15 points higher (.951) at home than on the road (.936). The biggest difference has been in third baseman Jason Von Behren, who has a .943 fielding percentage at home and an .828 percentage on the road - a difference of 115 points.

SINGLETARY RAKING AND DOING YARD WORK

Elliot Singletary has been raking all season long, hitting leadoff for the majority of the season and responding with a .310 batting average. He has also has a team-high .537 slugging percentage and .408 on-base percentage, doing his job by being patient and hitting with some power.

Singletary, third in the nation and first in the conference in doubles (0.49/game), has 23 doubles this season - the second-most in school history and most since Ken Noe hit 28 in 1991. He has hits in his last seven games, including five multi-hit efforts, and has three home runs, 10 RBI and nine runs scored over that span.

In the second game of a doubleheader against Towson on Wednesday (5/4), Singletary had the biggest offensive outburst of his career. He homered twice for the first time in his career, drove in a career-high five runs, had a career-high five hits and tied career-bests with three runs and two stolen bases. Then, in the first game of the Florida State series, Singletary went yard in his second at-bat for his third home run in seven plate appearances.

WE MUST PROTECT THIS HULSE

Senior reliever Justin Hulse has been called upon to protect numerous leads over the past two seasons. In 2004, he made a school-record 28 appearances out of the Terp bullpen, and, he has made 26 relief appearances in 2005. He has six saves in his career, including five last season, and he has made 28 appearances in games decided by two runs or less over the last two seasons.

Maryland Baseball Finishes Regular Season Play With Two Games Against Longwood

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