COLLEGE PARK, MD -- No. 15 seed Maryland dropped a 10-5 decision to UConn in its second game at the College Park Regional of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night before the second consecutive sellout crowd of 3,000 at Bob 'Turtle' Smith Stadium. The Terps (46-13) will next play on Sunday at 1 p.m., against Wake Forest (41-18-1) in an elimination game. The winner will play UConn (48-13) at 7 p.m., on Sunday night.
Ian Petrutz (2-for-4) continued his torrid play as he homered and drove in four runs giving him nine RBIs in two NCAA Tournament games with a pair of homers. Matt Shaw also went 2-for-4 for the Terps. Kevin Keister hit a solo home run for Maryland, his 10th of the year.
Maryland rallied from an early 2-0 deficit as the first two UConn batters of the game homered. The Terps tied the game at two in the fifth only to see UConn regain the lead in the bottom of the inning at 3-2. The Huskies' Matt Donlan hit a three-run homer in the seventh to put them up 6-2.
Maryland starter Jason Savacool recovered after allowing those opening homers to toss six innings allowing just one run and five hits after that. He finished with five strikeouts.
Breaking Down The Action
• UConn opened the game with back-to-back homers by David Smith and Erik Stock to take a 2-0 lead after the first inning.
• Keister blasted a solo home run to right field to cut the UConn lead in half at 2-1, in the top of the third.
• Maryland tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth as Petrutz single to center brought home Maxwell Costes from second. UConn challenged the call at the plate as Costes slid in under the tag of Matt Donlan. The call stood as a run scored.
• The Huskies regained the lead at 3-2 on a fielder's choice by Ben Huber that brought home Stock in the bottom of the fifth.
• Donlan's two-out, three-run homer to left centerfield gave UConn a 6-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh.
• Zach Bushling hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to make it 8-2, UConn. Casey Dana's double off the centerfield wall scored a ninth run and Huber's RBI single scored Dana for a 10-2 advantage.
• Petrutz smashed a three-run homer in the top of the ninth to draw the Terps within three at 10-5.
Numbers To Know
• 7: Keister's homer extended his hitting streak to seven games (8-for-27) batting .296 over the span.
• 10: Keister became the seventh Terp to hit 10 home runs this season with his blast in the third inning.
• 10: Shliger extended his hit streak to 10 games going 18-for-43, for an average of .419.
• 11: Over his last 11 games, Petrutz is on a 19-for-46 stretch (.413) with 25 RBIs.
• 13: Costes now has a 13-game hit streak hitting 21-for-54 and an average of .389.
• 19: Shaw had his 19th multi-hit game of the season with two hits.
• 20: Shliger had his 20th double of the season in the third inning to tie for fifth all-time in a season at Maryland.
• 100: Savacool became the sixth Terp hurler to throw 100 or more innings in a season as he passed the century mark by completing the first inning. He now has 105.1 innings pitched this season.
• 100: Savacool threw 100 or more pitches in a game for the seventh time this season finishing with seven.
• 122: Savacool moved to fourth in single-season strikeouts as he fanned five in the game. He now has 122 to move past Eric Milton (118 in 1996) for fourth. Next on the list at No. 3 is Steve Schmoll (124 in 2003)
• 649: Maryland set its single-season record for hits in a season surpassing the former record of 649 set in 2002 with 10 in the game.
Up Next
• Maryland will next play on Sunday at 1 p.m., when the Terps will take on Wake Forest in an elimination game. The game will air on an ESPN Network to be announced and the Maryland Baseball Network.
• UConn will play the winner of the day game on Sunday night at 7 p.m.
• Tickets for both of Sunday's games can be purchased here.
