A week before the Maryland baseball team played West Virginia, it used an eighth-inning comeback to secure a 12-11 win over Richmond. After spotting their rally squirrel, Crumbs, scurrying across the field early in the frame, the Terps scored four runs in a dramatic midweek victory.
Crumbs didn’t appear Tuesday, but the Terps again used late-inning heroics to win a midweek game, this time securing a 7-6 victory over West Virginia.
“We’re pretty confident, we stay loose, we don’t tense up,” left fielder Madison Nickens said. “We know it’s going to happen; we’ll make a run sooner or later.”
That offensive spurt began in the sixth inning. Up to that point, the Terps had just one hit and trailed, 4-0. Nickens, meanwhile, entered the sixth in a 2-for-20 hitting slump.
But Nickens helped Maryland turn it around over the next two innings, blasting a two-run homer in the sixth and singling home the go-ahead runs in the seventh to help the Terps overcome the four-run deficit.
“Our guys are used to having success,” coach John Szefc said. “They’re used to it happening. They’re expecting it to happen.”
Tuesday followed a familiar script for the Terps, who have struggled to keep opponents off the board in midweek games this season before rallying late to scrape out wins.
This edition, however, began with a significant twist.
Right-hander Taylor Bloom lasted 1 ⅓ innings Saturday in the Terps’ win against Nebraska, so Szefc, in an attempt to rectify Bloom’s struggles, pitched him on short rest for his first career midweek game. Though not because of an explicit pitch count, Bloom exited after throwing 45 pitches in 2 ⅓.
“It was a good opportunity for him to make a short start against a really good team at home,” Szefc said. “So hopefully we can get him right for the weekend.”
Two of the game’s first three batters singled, putting two runners on for Mountaineers third baseman Cole Austin, who lined a first-pitch fastball over the batter’s eye in center field for a three-run bomb.
Down 3-0 in the third, left-hander Tayler Stiles replaced Bloom in the third but received a rude welcome. The first batter he faced, first baseman Jackson Cramer, crushed a solo homer to right field to extend West Virginia’s advantage.
Stiles didn’t allow another run in his 2 ⅔ innings, however, allowing Maryland to search for its batting success without facing a significant deficit.
The Terps got on the scoreboard in the sixth frame, which started with a leadoff double from second baseman Nick Dunn. Then, Nickens’ four-bagger — his first extra-base hit since March 19 — pulled Maryland to within 5-2.
“I give a lot of credit to Madison Nickens right there, because he’s struggled a lot lately,” Szefc said. “He’s another guy we’ve got to get right … [and] he has two huge at-bats, drives in four of our seven runs.”
The Mountaineers scored a run in the top of the seventh, but the Terps responded with a solo home run from catcher Dan Maynard in the bottom half of the inning, which Nickens said sparked the ensuing rally.
After a strikeout, six consecutive Terps reached base to help the Terps surge ahead.
Dunn brought the Maryland within one with a single, and third baseman AJ Lee’s suicide squeeze bunt brought home the tying run. With the bases loaded, Nickens put the Terps ahead with a single through the left side. The senior pumped his fist as he jogged to first and watched two runs easily score.
“We’re just a resilient group of guys,” said right-hander Ryan Selmer, who picked up his second win of the season. “I feel like no matter what, we’re going to come back and score runs.”
Selmer’s 2 ⅓ innings of work ended with two outs in the ninth. A pair of hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly brought West Virginia within one. With two outs, the Mountaineers had runners on the corners.
In came right-hander Ryan Hill, who struck out right fielder Darius Hill to clinch his first-career save and the Terps’ 7-6 win.
“It all depends on how you finish, not really how you start, and our guys finished up,” Szefc said. “They did enough, man. They bent, but they didn’t break.”
