Maryland
Southeastern Louisiana
Terps Roll Past Lions, 8-1
3/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Freshman Marty Costes blasted a three-run home run in the third inning to help lead the Maryland baseball team past Southeastern Louisiana, 8-1, in the second game of the Keith LeClair Classic at Clark-LeClair Stadium Saturday afternoon.
The Terrapins (5-4) scored in the first three innings to pull away from the Lions. Sophomore RHP Taylor Bloom picked up the win while Costes finished with four RBIs.
Maryland opened the scoring in the top of the first. Southeastern Louisiana starter Mac Sceroler walked the bases loaded before Costes hit a sac fly, which just missed being a home run, to plate Madison Nickens.
After the Lions tied the game in the bottom half of the first, Maryland retook the lead when sophomore Justin Morris hit a solo shot to right field for his second home run of the year.
The Terps blew the game open in the third. After a Nick Dunn singled and Nick Cieri walked, Costes turned on a 2-1 pitch and blasted it over the left field fence to give the Terps a 5-1 lead. It was the first home run of Costes' career.
After giving up a run in the first, Bloom was sensational, giving up just four hits over seven innings of while striking out five. He retired eight straight at one point and sat the Lions down in order on three occasions.
The Terps tacked on a run in the sixth with a Kevin Smith RBI double that plated Kevin Biondic, who had singled with two outs.
Maryland plated two more runs in the top of the ninth. Dunn reached after the second baseman mishandled a sharp groundball before Cieri was hit by a pitch. After Kengo Kawahara came in to pinch run for Cieri, Zach Jancarski walked to load the bases.
Senior Anthony Papio then hit into a fielder's choice that forced out Jancarski, but was good enough to score Dunn. Sophomore Andrew Bechtold followed up with a single through the right side to plate Kawahara and give the Terps an 8-1 lead.
Dunn finished the day with two hits to raise his team-high batting average to .394. Dunn and Nickens have reached base in all nine games. Smith also had two base knocks and extended his hitting streak to seven contests.
Biondic's two-hit output represented his team-best fourth multi-hit game. Bloom moved his record to 2-1 and sports a team-low 2.37 ERA. He has struck out 19 to just two walks on the season.
Maryland returns to action Sunday against tournament host East Carolina. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m., and the game can be heard live on the Maryland Baseball Network.
– Terps –
