Maryland third baseman Nick Lorusso entered the box for his 11th at-bat of the day Sunday night against UConn in a win-or-go-home game with one thought on his mind.
“Deep high hair,” he said later.
With a count of 1-2 and the bases loaded with one out, Lorusso got a pitch he could handle and threw it off the top of the right-field wall, sending Kevin Keister across the plate as the final run in the Terps. second do-or-die game of the day. Maryland used a 10-5 win over Wake Forest and a 7-6 win over UConn to stay alive in the NCAA Tournament.
The Terps’ two wins on Sunday mean they will face the Huskies for a third and final time on Monday night, with the winner securing a spot in the Super Regional.
[Big man expected to commit]
Maryland opened the day by facing the region’s second seed Wake Forest in an elimination game, hoping to earn a rematch with UConn in the evening. The Terps allowed the Demon Deacons to take control early, giving up two runs in the bottom of the first, but were able to respond immediately with two of them in the next half inning.
After Wake Forest built a 5-2 lead in six innings, Maryland took over with one in the seventh, six in the eighth and one more in the ninth, claiming a 10-5 victory in the first game.
Maryland’s Nick Lorusso hits a single with the bases loaded in the 11th inning. Terps will play UConn tomorrow to decide who advances to the super regionals. pic.twitter.com/qvAQ3TCJl2
— Ryan McFadden (@ryanmcfadden_) June 6, 2022
“It’s a big win, but you know, it’s what we talked about, you have to go back to neutrality,” head coach Rob Vaughn said after the first game. “We have a good team from UConn coming in to play really well and you know, emotions are running high right now, which is great. But like I said, getting to a regional final is not the goal and we did this last year and we’re in the exact same spot and we fell short.”
With each of his top three starters sold out, Vaughn turned to grad student nick robinson to start the fourth game of the weekend and it did not disappoint. Robinson went 5.0 innings throwing 85 pitches (61 strikes) with no runs allowed and just four hits with one walk and five strikeouts.
Maryland’s offense got behind Robinson early, scoring three runs in the first inning to give him operating comfort for much of his start. One more run for sure came in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a home run by Lorusso, but it was all quickly undone.
Maryland’s bullpen went through three pitchers in the top of the sixth, allowing four runs on three hits with four walks. This allowed the Huskies to score four runs and tie things up, putting Maryland back on their heels once again.
The Terps worked to put up two in the seventh, but the Huskies fought back and tied things up in the next half inning. The fact that UConn was 2-0 in the region and had a game to play helped their strategy somewhat, as the club allowed reliever Garrett Coe to go 2 1/3 innings and reliever Devin Kirby to go 4.1 tickets himself.
The duo were able to devour the Terrapin lineup in extra innings while Vaughn had to call the starter. ryan ramsey to power through 2.1 inputs. Freshman Andrew Johnson took the mound in the 11th inning, becoming the seventh pitcher used by Maryland in the second game alone.
“We didn’t have the luxury of saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got to save someone to start tomorrow,'” Vaughn said. “Because if we don’t do it today, there will be no tomorrow.”
Fortunately for Vaughn and the Terps, Johnson got the job done and the offense was able to work with the bases loaded when the reliever jack sullivan he entered, setting up Lorusso’s long pass.
Maryland will take on UConn on Monday night at 7 pm in a winner-takes-all regional final.
Source: 247sports.com