Terp Baseball To Play Two Against Towson On Wednesday

May 4, 2005

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TERP BASEBALL TO PLAY TWO AGAINST TOWSON ON WEDNESDAY

Coming off its second win over a top-five team this season at No. 4 Miami, Maryland baseball returns home to take on intrastate rival Towson in a Wednesday doubleheader. Maryland is 14-6 this season in non-conference games, including an 8-3 mark at Shipley Field.

Sunday's game will air on Comcast Sports South, the Terps' second of two televised games this season. 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.

PREVIEWING TOWSON

2005 Record: 24-19 (9-9 Colonial Athletic Association).
2004 Record:17-35 (6-18 CAA).
All-Time Series: Maryland leads 29-22-0.
Last Meeting: Maryland 7, Towson 1 - February 26, 2005.

Towson will come to College Park with an overall record of 24-19 and a road record of 8-10 this season. The Tigers are winners of their last two series and seven of their last nine games overall heading into the schools' second and third meetings of the season.

In the first meeting, Feb. 26 at the Charleston Challenge, Ben Pfinsgraff silenced Towson's big bats by giving up just two hits and no earned runs in 7.0 innings. Ryan Moorer closed out the game two scoreless innings to preserve a 7-1 Maryland win. The teams were supposed to meet three days later in College Park, but snow in the outfield halted those plans and led to today's doubleheader.

The Towson lineup has been of the most potent in the country this season, leading the nation in home runs (87, 1.98/g) and ranking third in team slugging percentage (.551). Former Terp Jason Maxey, Casper Wells and Mark Chiccini have led that charge with at least 10 home runs apiece. Maxey leads the team and has set a new school record with 18 homers and is third in the nation with 0.40 home runs per game. Wells has hit 15 home runs, 14 doubles and four triples on his way to the nation's fourth-highest slugging percentage at .816.

Towson pitching has been steady, balanced and solid all season, leading to a respectable 5.14 team ERA. Only one pitcher, Jon Tapper, has an ERA below 4.00, but 12 out of 14 pitchers have ERAs of 6.00 or better. The team's top hitter, Casper Wells, also leads the team with four wins and is tied for second with nine starts. Chris Rhoades, the starter in the teams' previous meeting this season leads Towson with 61.2 innings pitched, 49 strikeouts and 10 starts, while Jason Volker and Steve Johnson have each made a team-high 14 relief appearances.

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 ... Chris Bowen has a 1.62 ERA and .133 batting average against in four home appearances ... Brett Cecil has given up two runs in his last 10.1 innings and has a 2.16 ERA in the 11 appearances in which he walks less than two batters ... Chris Clem has gone at least 6.0 innings in nine of his last 10 starts and has walked two batters or less in nine of his 11 starts on the season ... With a team-high 23 appearances this season, Justin Hulse not only ranks seventh in the ACC, but is now tied for ninth 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 had his most effective outing of the season on Saturday at Miami (4/30), allowing just one base runner and no runs in two innings ... he was the only Terp pitcher to hold the Hurricanes scoreless in consecutive innings in the game ... Michael Meagher has allowed zero earned runs in 10 of his 11 appearances this season ... Ryan Moorer is 1-0 with a .129 opponent batting average in his last three appearances (9.0 innings) ... if you included his exhibition stats against the Bowie Baysox, Moorer would be 2-0 with a 2.57 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP in his last four appearances ... Seth Overbey has given up one extra-base hit in his last 5.2 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 won his fourth straight decision with a career-high 7.0 shutout innings at James Madison last week (4/26) ... Sufczynski has given up two earned runs or less in six of his seven starts ... Brad Taylor leads the team with an 8:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and Brett Tidball leads the team with a .176 opponent batting average.

Offense
Redshirt freshman Taylor Baum got his first career hit on Saturday at Miami (4/30) ... Chad Durakis leads the team with a .372 average with runners on base and an 81.8% success rate scoring runners from third base with less than two outs (9 RBI in 11 opportunities) ... Will Frazier has 13 RBI and has been hit by six pitches in the 12 games ... On Sunday at Miami (5/1), Frazier moved within one home run shy of second on the Maryland career list with a three-run shot in the second inning, the 31st of his career ... Matt Maropis has successfully stolen nine straight bases and is now tied for the team lead with 12 on the season ... Maropis is hitting .333 (12-for-36) with 11 runs, three doubles and four walks in his last nine games ... Truan Mehl is hitting .491 (26-for-53) in his last 11 games ... Mehl is now four hits and 26 total bases shy of 10th on the respective Maryland single season lists ... 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 Sunday series finale at Miami (5/1), doubling his previous career-best of two hits ... Palumbo is also third on the team with 16 walks and tied for third with a .387 on-base percentage ... In his last five games, Bobby Ryan has scored three runs, driven in three runs, sacrificed three times and walked three times ... Elliot Singletary leads the ACC and is tied for third in the nation in doubles per game (0.50/g) ... Singletary actually has more doubles (21) than singles (20) this season ... Jason Von Behren has seven walks in his last 31 plate appearances after walking seven times in his first 124 plate appearances of the season ... Maryland is 11-4 when Jordan Wilson drives in a run and just 7-19 when he does not collect an RBI.

MEHL-EVISION

Senior outfielder, the team leader in most offensive categories, has been outstanding all season long for the Terrapins, and he has been especially good in Maryland's two television games. Led by a dominant 4-for-5 performance in the team's first TV game against Wake Forest (4/23), Mehl is a combined 5-for-9 with three runs, two RBI, two doubles and a stolen base when he's been on television this season.

STAFF APPRECIATION DAY

Looking to make up for being without starter Ben Pfinsgraff and combat prolific Miami starter Cesar Carrillo, Maryland went with a `staff day' to kick off its series with the Hurricanes. The Terps alternated lefties and righties, using a total of eight pitchers to keep the powerful Miami offense off balance.

Miami improved to 32-0 all-time when Carrillo starts, but it wasn't easy. The Terrapins got on the board in the first inning and kept the game close for nine innings, but ultimately, Carrillo and the Hurricanes pulled through to win 4-3. Maryland became the only team to come within a run of beating Miami when Carrillo starts and was a serious threat to Carrillo's perfect 22-0 career record.

Senior left-hander Josh Andrews made his second start of the season in the game and worked out of a bases-loaded jam with an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. Andrews managed to hold Miami scoreless in the first inning for just the 12th time in 43 games this season.

Miami got 11 hits in the game, but the staff approach did the job, preventing any big innings from the Hurricanes. Backed by Maryland's best defensive game of the season, Miami didn't score more than one run in any inning for just the fourth time all season and the second time in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

SHOWING MOORER POISE

Freshman right-hander Ryan Moorer continues to grow with every inning he pitches, and is getting the job done for the Terps of late. Over the weekend, he made appearances in back-to-back games against Miami. In Friday's series opener, he was the last of eight Terrapin pitchers to throw and was the only one to work a perfect inning against the Hurricanes. His velocity seemed to be as high as it has ever been, and his command was flawless, needing just 10 pitches (eight strikes) to work a 1-2-3 eighth inning.

He came back the next day and gave up two runs in three relief innings. He gave up just two hits, but a two-run homer by Danny Valencia spoiled an otherwise solid outing.

In his last three official appearances, Moorer has given up just four hits in 9.0 innings, picking up his first career win in a start against Coppin State (4/19). Prior to that, he gave up four hits and no earned runs in an exhibition game against the Bowie Baysox. If that game were included in the team's season stats, Moorer would be 2-0 with a 2.57 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in his last four appearances.

JOE PA-LUMBER

Freshman Joe Palumbo went on the aggressive at the plate in the series finale at Miami, pulling out the heavy lumber and putting together a 4-for-5 day. He scored two runs and drove in two more on his way to doubling his previous career-high of two hits and tying a career-best with two RBI in a game. The four hits had a big impact on the freshman's batting average, too, raising it 42 points from .188 to .230.

TERPS A THREAT TO UPSET

The 2005 Terrapins continue to show improvement and have proven to be a legitimate threat to some of the conference's top teams. The team's two wins over top-five teams Georgia Tech (4/2) and Miami (5/1) have been well-documented, but Maryland has played teams tough all season long. Of the team's 20 conference losses this season, seven have come in one-run games, two in two-run games and two in three-run games.

Maryland is mathematically locked in for the ACC Tournament play-in round robin, meaning it will have to win two games for the right to play the conference's regular season champion. With six conference losses apiece, that opponent would most likely be Georgia Tech (18-6), Miami (17-6-1) or North Carolina (15-6-1). Maryland beat both Georgia Tech and Miami and lost two close games to North Carolina (3-5, 2-3).

MARYLAND SAYS FAREWELL TO KYLE GEORGE

First-year volunteer assistant Kyle George has been a valuable part of the Maryland coaching staff since taking the program's volunteer assistant position in the summer. A former standout shortstop and a 43rd round draft choice in 2003, George worked with infielders and was instrumental in drills and the team's pre-game warm-up routine.

George's last days with the team were at Miami, and the team capped his tenure off with its second win over a top-five team of the season. George now heads to spring training with the Elmira Pioneers of the Can-Am League for his third season in professional baseball.

Terp Baseball To Play Two Against Towson On Wednesday

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