Feb. 26, 2011
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
David Carroll pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings, Brandon Padula hit a first-inning home run and Maryland took a 3-0 victory over Army Saturday afternoon.
Carroll (2-0) was dominant in his second start for the Terps, scattering five hits while striking out four. Michael Boyden came on to record the final five outs and earn the save as Maryland improved to 4-3.
A junior-college transfer from Western Nevada, Carroll lowered his ERA to 0.68 on the season. He went six innings and gave up a single run in a win over No. 6 Texas a week ago.
"I thought our pitching today was excellent," said head coach Erik Bakich. "I thought David Carroll pitched extremely well. He pitched out of jams. He's just a strike thrower; that's one of his biggest strengths is his ability to throw strikes and command three different pitches and he had another good outing."
Maryland used seven pitchers and issued 11 walks in Friday's 13-inning affair, but Carroll issued just two walks and threw nearly two-thirds of his pitches for strikes.
"Carroll was good last week and he was good again this week," said Bakich. "That's exactly what we needed after a day like yesterday where we used our bullpen quite a bit and gave up a lot of free passes."
Alfredo Rodriguez gave Maryland a 1-0 lead in the first inning when he drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Korey Wacker and moved to third on a wild pitch. Tomo Delp then grounded out to shortstop, bringing Rodriguez home. One batter later Padula hit his first home run of the season to left field, giving Maryland a 2-0 lead.
Wacker singled down the right-field line to score Rodriguez in the bottom of the fifth and increase Maryland's lead to 3-0.
Rodriguez was 1-for-3 at the plate with a walk and two runs scored, but his defense clearly stood out. The shortstop has started 72 straight games for Maryland and finished with seven assists in this one. Twice he made diving plays to his left, popped up and threw a runner out at first. He also turned a 6-3 double play in the second inning.
"ARod is the leader of our infield. He's kind of `Mr. Consistency,'" said Bakich. "I think he's one of the better defenders in the conference if not the nation. He makes all the routine plays and then he makes the web gems too. When he makes those types of plays it's a huge momentum builder for our team."
Boyden, who earned the win Wednesday over Navy, was also a key to the victory. He came on with runners on second and third and one out in the eighth and after issuing a walk, struck out Clint Moore and got Kevin McKague to ground out. Boyden struck out sandwiched a groundout with two strikeouts in the ninth to pick up his first save of the season.
Maryland and Army play the third and final game of the series Sunday at noon.
Notes:
- Center fielder Korey Wacker finished 3-for-3 at the plate and is 7-for-14 in the last three games.
- Freshman third baseman Jake Stinnett recorded his second multiple-hit game by going 2-for-4.
- The shutout was Maryland's first since a 10-0 win over Virginia Tech on March 12, 2010.
- Maryland improved to 3-0 at home this season.
