Maryland’s offense was too much as Penn State baseball dropped the series with the Terrapins

Maryland’s offense proved too much as the Terrapins compiled nine total hits, defeating Penn State 7-1 Monday afternoon to close out the teams’ three-game series at Medlar Field.

The first game on Saturday saw the Terrapins’ batting explode for 19 runs, defeating the Nittany Lions 19-10. However, Penn State rebounded and won 6-5 on Sunday behind Josh Spiegel’s ninth inning walk-off single, but it ultimately fell short in the third game and was unable to pick up its first series win of the season.

Terrapins’ senior outfielder Chris Alleyne, who’s high on the radar for MLB teams this upcoming draft, hit the game’s only home run to right field in the sixth inning and finished the game with two RBIs.

Starting pitcher Jason Savacool pitched all nine innings for Maryland and recorded three strikeouts along with only five hits allowed to improve his record to 3-0.

Opposite the mound from him was Nittany Lions’ starter Kyle Virbitsky, who went four and one-thirds innings pitched and flashed his superb ability to get batters out of the box, notching seven strikeouts while allowing six hits.

But after allowing three hits in four batters in the top of the fifth frame to push Maryland’s lead to two, Virbitsky was pulled and Penn State used three relief pitchers the rest of the way.

After a few hits by the Terrapins in the third inning to open the scoring, 1-0, the Nittany Lions immediately answered with a pair of singles from Justin Williams and Jay Harry followed by an RBI double play by Spiegel the following inning to even the score at one.

But that’s all Penn State’s offense could muster up, as Maryland went on to score an additional six runs to put the game out of reach.

Outfielder Randy Bednar led the way with two hits in four at-bats for the Terrapins, while seven other batters notched one hit as they found timely hitting all throughout their lineup. With the win and series victory over the Nittany Lions, they now sit at 5-6 on the season.

All five of Penn State’s hits were singles, as the team failed to add an extra base hit and has now been held to one run or fewer in four of its 11 games so far this season. The loss drops its record to 3-8 this year.

The Nittany Lions will remain home as they’ll face the Michigan Wolverines in a three-game series starting at 4 p.m. Friday.

This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 7:59 PM.