TAMPA, FL – No. 13 Maryland suffered an 8-7 defeat to open the 2023 season at South Florida at the USF Baseball Stadium on Friday night.
Sophomore Jacob Orr smashed his first-career home run, a grand slam, as he equaled his career-high with five RBIs. The slam in the eighth drew the Terps within one after they trailed 8-3.
Sophomore Ian Petrutz smashed a home run on the first pitch he saw this season, blasting it over the right centerfield scoreboard. The Terps two other runs came on RBI triples by Orr and Elijah Lambros. In his Terps' debut, Lambros went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Petrutz went 2-for-3 wth two runs scored.
Jason Savacool threw six innings scattering seven hits and allowing five runs as he suffered the loss.
Bobby Boser hit two home runs for South Florida and drove in four runs to lead their offensive attack. Travis Sankovich went 3-for-4 with three runs driven in.
Coach Vaughn's Take
"They had one more two-out hit than we did and that's really the name of the game. We had some opportunities, and we just didn't quite get it done. It was a good baseball game I think we fought our tails off tonight, we just came a hit or a pitch short."
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Jacob Orr has been preparing from the jump, he has been elite in the preseason. We really challenged him in the fall and the guy has rung the bell... it wasn't shocking at all that he came up with some huge hits, that's who he is."
Breaking Down The Action
- USF's Boser smacked a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning to put the Bulls up 3-0
- Maryland quickly answered as Petrutz homered on the first pitch he saw this season, blasting the ball over the videoboard. The Terps then tied the game at 3-3 on triples by Jacob Orr and Elijah Lambros – his first at-bat as a Terp.
- USF regained the lead at 4-3 as Travis Sankovich doubled to left to score Daniel Cantu in the bottom of the third inning.
- Boser cracked his second home run of the game to push USF's lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth.
- The Terps threatened in the seventh as they loaded the bases before Nick Lorusso grounded into a fielder's choice to end the inning.
- With rain coming down in the seventh, the Bulls tacked three more runs to make it 8-3 as Stanton Leuthener scored in a fielder's choice and Sankovich drove in a pair on an opposite field single.
- Orr smashed a grand slam in the seventh inning to draw the Terps within one at 8-7 scoring Kevin Keister, Eddie Hacopian and Petrutz.
- The Terps threatened with two runners in the ninth, but couldn't tied it up.
By The Numbers
- 1: Both Orr and Lambros had their first-career triples – in that second inning.
- 2: The Terps had two triples in the second inning. Its the first time the Terps had two triples in a game since April 20, 2019 against Ohio State.
- 5: Orr tied his career-high in RBIs with five. He also had five against James Madison on April 13, 2022
Terp Debuts
- Several Terps made their debuts in the game.
- First baseman Eddie Hacopian hit fifth and played his first game at Maryland after transferring in from Cypress College.
- Lambros started in centerfield after coming to College Park after a season at South Carolina.
The New No. 3
- Luke Shliger, played his first game as Terps' new No. 3 and team captain taking over from Chris "Bubba" Alleyne last season's Big Ten Player of the Year.
- No. 3 which was first worn by now assistant Anthony Papio represents the three pillars of Maryland baseball created by Vaughn which are toughness, ownership, and growth mindset.
- Shliger, a 2022 All-Big Ten Second Team selection was ranked as the No. 1 catcher in college baseball by D1Baseball
Up Next
- The Terps and Bulls will play on Saturday at 2 p.m., in Game 2 of the series. Nick Dean will get the start for Maryland. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and the Maryland Baseball Network.
