Ole Miss Baseball Drops Series Opener to No. 13 Maryland

Ole Miss and Maryland began their three-game series Friday night two hours late due to rain during the day. When play ended, the 13th-ranked Terrapins had a 9-2 victory over the fourth-ranked Rebels in game one.

The contest was close, with Maryland leading 3-1, until the seventh inning when the Terrapins scored five runs. The Rebels weren’t able to come back from that seven-run deficit.

Jack Dougherty started his first game on the mound for Ole Miss since he started the Rebels’ first game in the CWS championship series against Oklahoma last June.  

After a relatively smooth three up, three down top of the first, the junior right-hander ran into some difficulty in the second. The first two Terrapins reached on singles, while the third batter walked. Kevin Keister flew out to right field to score one run. Bobby Zmarzlak reached on a fielder’s choice to score a second Maryland run. After Elijah Lambros walked, Luke Shliger then flew out to center field to end the inning with the Terrapins up 2-0.

Dougherty had thrown 49 pitches through two innings. The Rebels responded offensively in the bottom of the second.

A leadoff single through the left side for Calvin Harris got things started. Ethan Lege struck out but a passed ball on the play allowed Harris to get to second. Harris advanced to third on a wild pitch by Maryland starter Jason Savacool, then scored on a groundout by Anthony Calarco. Will Furniss struck out but Ole Miss had cut the visitor’s lead in half at 2-1.

Both teams were scoreless in the third. In the fourth inning Dougherty allowed a two-out hit but a strikeout looking by Zmarzlak ended the inning.

After the Rebels went scoreless in the fourth, Dougherty was back to the mound in the fifth. Following a double by Lambros and a RBI single from Shliger, Dougherty was relieved by Mitch Murrell. The senior right-hander allowed just a run, and with runners on first and third, the Terps’ Eddie Hacopian struck out to end the inning.      

Dougherty faced 19 batters and threw 79 pitches with three runs on six hits, three strikeouts and two walks.

Calarco got things going for the Rebels in the fifth with a base hit to left. A groundout by Furniss moved Calarco to second. Judd Utermark then struck out, followed by a Peyton Chatagnier fly out to center.

In the Terrapin seventh with runners on second and third after a Shliger single and a Matt Shaw double, freshman righthander Jordan Vera entered the contest. He walked Nick Lorusso to load the bases. Ian Petrutz cleared them with a grand slam into the Ole Miss bullpen in right. It was 7-1 Maryland. Before the inning was over, the Terps led 8-1 and Vera had been replaced by freshman right-hander Brayden Jones.

The Rebels cut into the Maryland lead in the bottom of the seventh. Calarco doubled with two outs, and a single by Will Furniss scored him. It was 8-2 Terps.

Savacool was solid in his seven innings of work, allowing no eraned runs on five hits with nine strikeouts and no walks. Right-hander Kenny Lippman went the final two frames for Maryland.

After Maryland added a run in the eighth, freshman right-hander Cole Ketchum came on to pitch the top of the ninth and got a fly out and two strikeouts.

The Rebels (4-1) ended up with six hits in the contest. Harris and Calarco led Ole Miss offensively, each going 2-for-4. Maryland (3-2) had 13 hits off Rebel pitching.  
 

The two teams face off in game two of this SEC-Big Ten series at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports