It’s always a shame when the print edition of The Diamondback doesn’t have enough space for all of the sports. Despite the Terrapin baseball team’s best three games of the season, there are just too many good teams at the university and that means baseball gets pushed to the blog.
But that won’t stop me from bringing you all of the news and notes from the weekend. The Terps (5-6) opened with a 6-3 victory on Friday afternoon, and finally opened up offensively on Saturday in a 10-3 win. They capped off the weekend with a 7-5 win on Sunday made possible by some late-game heroics.
In some sense getting to recap the weekend on the blog is better, not just for the amount of additional space I am afforded, but also because it allows me to be a little bit looser with the laws of traditional journalism. So rather than write a traditional weekend recap like you would expect to find in the newspaper, I will just break down the major storylines as I saw them.
Starting rotation sets the tone
The Sunday finale of a three-game set can often turn into a slugfest, especially this early in the season while pitchers are still getting back all their arm strength. If the Sunday starter doesn’t carry the game into the sixth inning and beyond, its puts an impossible strain on a usually depleted bullpen.
So it was especially nice for coaches Erik Bakich and Sean Kenny to have all of their key bullpen guys rested and ready when Sander Beck failed to come back out for the fifth inning. The primary reason the Terps had their full bullpen at their disposal was because of fantastic starts from Eric Potter on Friday, and Brett Harman on Saturday.
With Harman having pitched in relief in Wednesday’s win against Towson, Potter got the ball in the series opener and responded with 6.o innings, allowing just one run and five hits while striking out five.
Potter got help from lefty set-up man John Dischert who threw a scoreless seventh and eighth inning and Ian Schwalenberg slammed the door after relieving Matt Passauer who allowed two runs without getting anyone out.
On Saturday, Harman was arguably better. Coming off a disastrous start in the 17-3 loss to Delaware, Harman worked with pitching coach Kenny, and the two noticed the righthander was dropping his arm angle. The kink was taking the bite off his slider and was responsible for a lot of his mistake pitches.
Conscious of his hitch, Harman took the mound and delivered his best performance of the season against an overmatched Hofstra team. When Harman came out to start the ninth inning he had only allowed two earned runs and seven hits and had nine strikeouts, one away from his career-high.
“My slider wasn’t working against Delaware, I left it up in the zone a lot. Basically coach Kenny and I made some adjustments in the bullpen to help bring it back down again,” Harman said. “He had me start coming over the top more and you could see my pitches start diving and had more bite.”
Harman lost the chance for the complete game when he gave up a dinger to Pride cleanup hitter Ethan Paquette, but he said that while disappointed in himself for not being able to finish the game, the coaches made the right decision to pull him.
Both of these starts made it much easier for the Terps to come from behind on Sunday to complete the sweep. Kenny actually thought Beck pitched pretty well and the Pride just hit some good pitches, but whatever the reason was, Hofstra hit a lot of line drives in the first four innings.
Beck gave up four runs on five hits, only one earned, but was relieved by Schwalenberg to start the fifth. The three best relievers on the Terps’ roster are Schwalenberg, Adam Kolarek, and Dan Gentzler. All three were well-rested for Sunday’s finale, and all three got the chance to pitch. The trio combined to allow just one run over the remaining five innings, and the Terps were able to slowly chip away at a 5-2 lead and set the stage for late inning heroics.
“Anytime you get quality starts from your first two guys like Potter and Harman gave us, that’s invaluable,” Bakich said. “It saves our bullpen and when you are playing five games a week there are only so many pitches those guys can throw. Saving our bullpen for a Sunday, when we need it, that was a definite difference maker in today’s game.”
Padula is red hot
Upon first hearing that Brandon Padula had transferred from West Virginia to play in College Park, I assumed he was an impact player for the Mountaineers that Bakich and company had lucked into. Little did I know just how wrong I was about his time in Morgantown, and on his immediate impact with the Terps.
Padula was a non-scholarship, non-recruited player at West Virginia, and thus wasn’t subjected to the one-year hiatus most transfers need to go through before becoming eligible. It’s a good thing for the Terps too because the junior outfielder has been the Terps’ best offensive player by a long shot.
Padula capped off his fourth consecutive three-hit game on Sunday with the game-winning three-run homerun in the eighth inning. Down one run, the Terps rallied and put runners on first and third when centerfielder Matt Marquis legged out an infield single. Padula already had an RBI single and an infield single of his own. But he saved the best for last crushed a fastball over the fence in left-centerfield.
“I was just trying to get a good pitch to hit and put it in the outfield,” Padula said as his teammates heckled him from the Shipley Field stands. “At first I thought it might hit the fence, obviously I was happy it went over. I guess I am just getting good pitches to hit and I am trying to hit them hard.”
Getting answers out of the unassuming leftfielder was like pulling teeth, but he certainly isn’t nearly as shy at the dish. Padula entered the weekend second in the ACC with a .563 average. He exited the field Sunday with a .568 average and likely the top spot in a conference filled with top flight hitters.
Although the season is still young, the story remains fantastic when you consider that, just like with his personality, Padula came to College Park with a low profile and little fanfare. He ended up a Terp partly because of a quick recruiting sell from Bakich and recruiting coordinator Dan Burton, and also because he went to Oakton High School in Oakton, Va., the same school as shortstop Alfredo Rodrgiuez, who Padula credits for helping influence his decision.
Both coach Bakich and Kenny agree that Padula’s quiet demeanor reflects in his approach at the plate as well.
“The one thing we heard from everybody we talked to was that he could hit,” Bakich said. “He is a guy who is going to have a lot of quality at-bats and won’t have a lot of misfires when he swings. He is just one of those guys who when he gets a mistake pitch he doesn’t miss it.”
“His swing is just so simple and easy and fluid,” Kenny added.
Offense is still a major question mark
Outside of Padula, the rest of the team is still struggling to swing the aluminum with any consistency. Rodriguez is tied with Marquis for second on the team in RBI at six and no one has really distinguished themselves other than perhaps Marquis with his raw power.
The problem is there is really no short-term solution for Bakich who has his hands tied without a lot of depth around the diamond. If the team is going to have a shot at winning in Blacksburg, Va. next weekend against Virginia Tech, they will need offensive output from some stalwarts, three in particular.
Senior second baseman David Poutier, sophomore designated hitter Tyler Bennett and sophomore third baseman Matt Murakami were three major reasons for optimism in Terps’ camp. Poutier was the team’s most accomplished returning hitter, and the sophomore duo were two of the brightest stars at the end of last season, and both were expected to play an increased role, especially on offense.
Despite strong Fall camps, none of the three has gotten off to the start they were hoping for. Poutier is having the most success, if you can call it that, with a .200 with just one home run and two RBI. He does have a .440 OBP thanks to a team-leading 14 walks, but the team will need more than walks in the leadoff spot, especially once conference play starts.
Murakami is next, and his average actually went up following decent days on Saturday and Sunday. But he still has just four hits in 36 at-bats and has just three RBI. He started the season hitting second but has been moved down in the lineup following the early season struggles.
The player with the most legitimate excuse, Bennett, is also having the worst start of season. Still fresh off Tommy John surgery, Bennett still can’t throw overhand and many think he might still be subconsciously holding back. Bennett always had strikeout issues because of his struggles with off-speed pitches, but two hits in just 28 at-bats and 10 strikeouts is worse than expected.
These three were all being counted on to play major roles, and they need to get it turned around in time for the start of conference play, which is just one week away.
Michael Lemaire is the Terrapin baseball beat writer. He can be reached at lemaire@umdbk.com