Baylor Baseball Drops Series Finale to Maryland, 8-4

[Calderone, Max]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – Feb. 20, 2022

Baylor BSB Drops Series Finale to Maryland, 8-4
Jackson turns in quality start as Terrapins complete the sweep
For more information contact: Max Calderone, 254-265-1639, Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu<mailto:Max_Calderone at Baylor.edu>

THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball (0-3) dropped its series finale to Maryland (3-0) Sunday afternoon at Baylor Ballpark, 8-4.

The Terrapins scored runs in five different innings and hit four home runs to complete the weekend sweep.

Senior RHP Jake Jackson (0-1) turned in a quality start for the Bears, throwing five innings while allowing three earned runs on five hits. He added seven strikeouts in his Baylor debut.

The Bears got on the board first as Tre Richardson scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first, but the Terps were quick to respond by posting two runs in the top of the second off a solo home run and the first of BU’s four fielding errors on the day.

Baylor evened the tally in the bottom of the third thanks to a RBI groundout from Richardson that scored Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo, but UMD was next to strike in the top of the fifth with a sacrifice fly and another solo home run.

BU cut the lead to 5-4 in the bottom of the frame following Richardson’s second RBI of the day, this time a sharply hit single, but that would be it for the Baylor offense until the bottom of the ninth.

Maryland added runs in each of the next three innings to extend its lead to 8-3. In the final frame, Antonio Valdez worked a walk and moved around to third on Cody Grebeck’s first-career hit, then later scored on a Kobe Andrade sacrifice fly.

That would be all as UMD reliever Nick Lorusso finished off Jason Savacool’s (1-0) strong effort of eight innings in which he scattered seven hits and allowed three runs with six punchouts.

NOTES
• Baylor falls to 0-3 all-time against Maryland.
• This is the first 0-3 start to a season for Baylor since 2013 when the Bears were swept at UC Irvine to begin the year.
• The BU pitching staff racked up 12 strikeouts for its second game of the season with double-digit K’s.
• Senior RHP Jake Jackson made his Baylor debut and turned in a quality start with five innings pitched, three earned runs on five hits and seven strikeouts.
• Sophomore INF Tre Richardson notched his first multi-hit game of the season.
• Sophomore RHP Will Rigney made his first appearance since March 23, 2021 and picked up a career-high four strikeouts.
• Freshman INF Cody Grebeck made his collegiate debut with a pinch-hit single in the ninth inning.
• Junior INF Jack Pineda extended his hit streak to six games, dating back to last season.
• Sophomore LHP/OF Kobe Andrade made his first-career start in left field.

STAT OF THE GAME
2 – Tre Richardson racked up two hits and two RBI, scoring Esteban Cardoza-Oquendo both times.

TOP QUOTES
Head coach Steve Rodriguez
On takeaways from today’s game…
“We definitely have things to improve on. I think the frustrating part, to be honest, we did not play well on the defensive side of it. We lost a couple balls in the sun, then we threw a couple balls away. Sometimes being over-aggressive on certain things can lead to bad results. I thought we did a really good job of maintaining some good at-bats today. The pitchers did an OK job of keeping us in the ballgame, but I think the mistakes on defense kind of cost us today.”

Sophomore INF Tre Richardson
On this season’s opening series…
“It’s the first weekend, and Maryland’s a good ball club. They’re a regional team. We knew we were going to get tested right out of the gate. I think it’s going to be something where we’re knocking off the rust a little bit. I have no doubt that we’re a really good team and we just didn’t play to the best of our ability. But, it’s early, and if we’re going to lose, we’re going to have to lose right now. Once we get hot and once we start rolling, there’s no saying where we can take ourselves.”

Senior RHP Jake Jackson
On takeaways from this weekend…
“It’s adversity. Nobody likes to lose, but I think losing makes you tougher. You learn a lot about yourselves in the moment when you lose. So, obviously, we’re going to come together a lot more and just find a way to win and grind it out throughout the rest of the season.”

WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears (0-3) return to Baylor Ballpark for a midweek clash against Houston Baptist (0-3) on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 6:30 p.m. CT.

For the latest news on the Baylor baseball team all season long, follow its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorBaseball.

-BaylorBears.com-

__________________________________

Max Calderone | Associate Director of Athletics Communications (BSB, FB, EQ)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 254-265-1639

[signature_1856516600]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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