COLLEGE PARK, MD -- Maryland won its second do-or-die game on Sunday, beating UConn, 7-6 in 11 innings to force a rematch of the teams on Monday night for the College Park NCAA Regional Championship. The Terps (48-13) and Huskies (48-14) are scheduled to play at 7 p.m.
The Terps stayed alive as Nick Lorusso's single off the rightfield wall brought home Kevin Keister for the walk-off win in the bottom of the 11th inning. Lorusso went 3-for-6 with a homer, two runs scored and two RBIs.
With the game tied at 4-4 in the seventh, Matt Shaw's groundball in the second-base hole and subsequent throwing error allowed Chris Alleyne to race around with the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, putting the Terps up 5-4. Alleyne then scored on a Maxwell Costes single to rightfield to give the Terps a 6-4 lead. UConn tied the game in the top of the eighth at 6-6.
Troy Schreffler Jr., smacked a two-run home run in the first inning and Lorusso added a solo monster shot that cleared the leftfield bleachers in the fifth.
Shaw went 2-for-5 with two RBIs.
Graduate student Nick Robinson drew just his second start of the season and gave the Terps a season-best five scoreless innings giving up just four hits while striking out a season-high five.
The Terps used six pitchers out the bullpen, including Friday night's starter Ryan Ramsey, who came on in the eighth and got the Terps to the 10th inning without allowing a run. Freshman Andrew Johnson (2-0) got the win in relief with a scoress 11th.
Breaking Down The Action
• Maryland raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Shaw's single to center brought home Lorusso to open the scoring. Then Schreffler blasted a two-run bomb to the leftfield bleachers to give the Terps the three-run edge. All three runs came with two outs.
• Lorusso launched his homer in the bottom of the fifth inning to make it 4-0, Terps.
• UConn tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the sixth inning after Robinson was removed. The Huskies got on the board with a run scoring on a sacrifice fly and an infield single to make it 4-2. Then T.C. Simmons singled to left to score Korey Morton cutting UConn's deficit to one at 4-3. The Terps tried to turn a double play on David Smith's hard shot to third base, but Smith barely beat the throw to first as Simmons came home to tie the game.
• The Terps took a 5-4 lead as Shaw's groundball single in the hole to second base was fielded and thrown wide to first allowing Alleyne to come around from second base to give the Terps the lead. Alleyne then scored on a single to right by Costes for a two-run edge.
• After UConn crept within one at 6-5 on an RBI triple by David Smith, the Terps called on ace starter Ryan Ramsey for his first relief outing of the season. But a Ramsey wild pitch allowed Smith to score and tie the game at 6-6.
Numbers To Know
• 1: Ramsey made his first relief outing of the season and threw 2 1/3 innings, allowing one hit and striking out three.
• 2: Robinson made his second-ever start for the Terps with the other coming on May 3.
• 5: Robinson threw a season-best five innings and struck out a season-high five batters. Both numbers were his most since May 16, 2019 while at Rhode Island (6 IP and 9 K at LaSalle).
• 9: The Terps have now won nine games in their last at bat this season, with five walk-offs. The previous ones are: (2/23 (UMBC, walk-off), 3/11 (GTown, walk-off), 4/12 (at JMU), 4/15 (OSU, walk-off), 4/19 (at Towson), 4/23 (at Illinois), 5/13 (Michigan), 5/26 (vs. Indiana, B1G Tourney walk-off)
• 9: Keister extended his hitting streak to nine games (11-for-35) batting .314 over the span with three homers in the nine games.
• 10: Schreffler became the eighth Terp to hit 10 home runs this season with his first-inning blast.
• 12: Luke Shliger has a 12-game hit streak at 21-for-54, for an average of .389.
• 12: Lorusso had his team-best 12th three-hit game of the season.
• 13: Over his last 13 games, Ian Petrutz is 22-for-53 (.415) with seven homers and 26 RBIs.
• 15: Costes is now on a 15-game hit streak batting 24-for-62 and average of .387.
• 20: Shaw had his 20th multi-hit game of the season.
• 26: Lorusso had his 26th multi-hit game this season.
• 29: Sean Heine made his 29th appearance of the season, tied for fourth-most in a season in Maryland history.
• 68: Lorusso now has 68 RBIs on the season, fourth-most in a single-season in Maryland history.
• 85: Alleyne had his 85th hit of the season and now stands alone in third for a single-season at Maryland.
• 115: Costes walked for the 115th time in his career, second all-time at Maryland to Chris Cannan (130 from 1991-94).
Up Next
• Maryland and UConn will rematch on Monday night in a game scheduled for 7 p.m. (subject to change), in the College Park in the Regional Final. The game will air on an ESPN Network. Purchase tickets here.
