The Terps prevailed in a back-and-forth, high-scoring affair.
Maryland baseball tried to put away its local rival Georgetown all game, but the Hoyas refused to back down in the early innings.
A back-and-forth game through the early innings led to Maryland trailing 7-6 heading into the fifth inning. Senior third baseman Nick Lorusso, who was riding a program-record 22-game hit streak, stepped up to the plate with two on and two out. He came in clutch, hitting a towering three-run homer to center field — his 10th of the year — to give Maryland the lead.
The Terps never relinquished that advantage in a 10-7 win over Georgetown on Tuesday evening in College Park.
Head coach Rob Vaughn shook up the lineup Tuesday, sitting sophomore outfielder Elijah Lambros and senior outfielder Bobby Zmarzlak and instead started sophomore outfielder Jacob Orr and redshirt junior catcher James Heffley. Junior catcher Luke Shliger got his second straight midweek start as a designated hitter, and sophomore Ian Petrutz was slotted in left field for the first time all season.
Junior right-handed pitcher Nate Haberthier got the start for Maryland and retired his first three batters.
From there on out, both teams rattled the opposing pitchers in almost every inning.
Maryland got things going in the bottom of the first inning. Shliger drew a leadoff walk, and Matt Shaw hit a ball off the outfield wall which was dogged out for an RBI triple. Then, Petrutz hit a ball through the right infield gap that brought in Shaw from third.
In the second, Haberthier had his first tough inning in a while. He gave up a hit and a walk to start, and after a double play, he walked two more batters to load the bases with two outs. Sophomore outfielder Keith Savoy Jr. capitalized on Haberthier’s rough stretch, hitting a two-RBI double to even the score.
Maryland flew out twice in a row in the bottom of the second, but got a run in from a Heffley walk and a Shliger RBI double.
Logan Ott relieved Haberthier in the third, and continued his struggles. His first batter flew out, but his next two batters got hard hits against him, including a two-run home run by Ubaldo Lopez. Ott retired his next two batters, but Georgetown had taken its first lead of the day.
Both teams continued to answer the other. Hoyas freshman right-handed pitcher Cody Bowker walked three batters in the bottom of the third, and Eddie Hacopian knocked in two with an RBI single. In the fourth, Georgetown’s Austin Kretzschmar hit a two-out, three-run home run. It would have been a thre- run Hoya lead, if not for a miraculous catch at the right field wall by Matt Woods to rob a homer from Owen Carapellotti. Maryland again answered back, as a two-out RBI single by Woods cut the deficit to one.
Andrew Johnson came in to pitch the fifth inning, and Georgetown finally went three up, three down. Maryland immediately struck back, getting two free passes which were brought in by a towering home run by Lorusso.
David Falco Jr. relieved Johnson in the middle of the top of the sixth, keeping things scoreless in his two-inning relief appearance.
Maryland tacked on another run in the seventh when Georgetown graduate right-handed pitcher Alexander Fenton moved Hacopian from first to third on a throwing error, and a ground ball by James Heffley brought him in.
Both teams were kept quiet the rest of the way. Fifth-year right-handed pitcher Kenny Lippman pitched one-third of an inning in the eighth, and sophomore right-handed pitcher Ryan Van Buren set the Hoyas down in order in the ninth to close out the game.
With the win, Maryland won its 10th game in its last 12. It will face No. 25 Iowa on the road this weekend.
Three things to know
1. Lots of lead changes. Maryland took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but the teams continued to trade blows throughout the game. When Maryland took a lead, Georgetown either tied it up or took it in the early innings. There were six lead changes in the first five innings, and Maryland scored in every one of them.
2. Maryland continues to thrive on free passes. If one thing has been consistent all season, it’s that Maryland has continuously gotten on base via a walk or hit by pitch. Against Georgetown, it worked 10 walks and were hit three times, which totaled 13 free passes for the Terps. Maryland’s whole lineup has been fantastic at the plate when it comes to discipline, and it continued to impress.
3. Logan Ott continues to give up hard contact. Ott surrendered two home runs Tuesday, and combined with last week’s appearance against George Washington, there seems to be a trend with hard-hit balls given up by Ott. He is still able to produce outs, but sometimes the hard contact he allows results in home runs and RBI hits, as it did Tuesday.