Terps Set To Take On No. 1 Florida State
5/4/2012 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 4, 2012
Maryland (29-20, 8-16 ACC) at #1 Florida St. (37-7, 19-2 ACC)
Saturday, May 5 (1 p.m.) | Sunday, May 6 (2 p.m.) | Monday, May 7 (7 p.m.)Location: Tallahassee, Fla.
Stadium: Dick Howser Stadium (6,700)
Live Stats: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
TV Information
Saturday: Regional Sports Network (FS South, Sun Sports, CSN Mid-Atlantic Plus, NESN - delay at 5pm, FS Arizona Plus, WatchESPN.com)
Sunday: WatchESPN.com
Monday: ESPNU, WatchESPN.com
Probable Pitching Matchups
Saturday (1:00): LHP Jimmy Reed (1-2, 1.81) vs. LHP Brandon Leibrandt (5-1, 3.00)
Sunday (2:00): RHP Brett Harman (6-3, 2.79) vs. RHP Mike Compton (8-0, 2.65)
Monday (7:00): RHP David Carroll (3-3, 3.79) vs. RHP Luke Weaver (1-0, 5.47)
Storyline...
• Maryland travels to No. 1 Florida State this weekend for its penultimate regular-season conference series. The Terps are 8-16 in conference play, having dropped their last two series after taking two straight over NC State and Duke at the start of April. Against ranked opponents this year Maryland has fared well, going 8-6. That includes two wins over UCLA, two over NC State, and one each over Purdue, East Carolina, North Carolina and Miami.
• The Terps continue to lead the ACC in pitching with a 2.67 ERA; in the most recent NCAA statistics report (4/30), Maryland ranked fifth nationally. On Tuesday, Maryland picked up its ACC-best 10th shutout of the season in a 1-0 win over Norfolk State.
• The starting rotation and bullpen have been consistently strong all year. Jimmy Reed ranks third in the ACC with a 1.81 ERA; Brett Harman is 13th with a 2.79 mark and is coming off a season-high 10 strikeout game at Virginia Tech; and David Carroll sits just outside the top 25 in the conference with a 3.79 mark. In the pen, Michael Boyden, Charlie Haslup and Korey Wacker have been most heavily relied upon. Boyden has a 2.09 ERA and is working on a scoreless inning streak that has reached 16; Wacker has a 2.05 ERA with a pair of saves, and Haslup has a 2.61 mark in a team-high 19 appearances.
• Jordan Hagel, K.J. Hockaday and Alfredo Rodriguez have paced the offense. Hagel leads the team in hitting (.309) and slugging (.472) and is second with 14 stolen bases. Hockaday, a freshman, is hitting .311 in conference play; while Rodriguez hit .382 in April and has a team-high 33 RBIs this year.
Follow the Terps
• Saturday's game will be broadcast on the Regional Sports Network which includes Fox Sports South, Sun Sports, Comcast Sports Atlantic and NESN. Sunday's game will be streamed on ESPN3 and Monday's game will be nationally-televised on ESPNU.
Scouting Florida State...
• The Seminoles are ranked No. 1 in four of the five major polls with a 37-7 overall record, including 19-2 in the ACC. Florida State has a 24-3 record at home.
• First baseman Jayce Boyd and center fielder James Ramsey are the top two hitters in the ACC. Boyd is hitting .400 with a .564 slugging percentage and 48 RBIs, the second-most in the league. Ramsey is hitting .392 with a .706 slugging percentage and .527 on-base percentage that lead the conference.
• The Florida State pitching staff ranks sixth in the conference with a 3.34 ERA, and its starting rotation has a combined 14-1 record. Sunday starter Mike Compton has the top ERA on staff at 2.65 to go along with a 8-0 record. He's holding opponents to a .222 batting average. Relief pitcher Robert Benincasa leads the league with 12 saves and has a 0.65 ERA.
Series history: Florida State leads the all-time series, 62-4. Maryland snapped a 40-game losing streak to Florida State last year by taking one of three in the series. In the win, David Carroll tossed 7 1/3 shutout innings while Jake Stinnett drove in three runs to lead Maryland to a 5-0 victory. Prior to that, Maryland's last win over FSU was March 26, 1998.
