PISCATAWAY, N.J. (May 9, 2022) -- The No. 21 Rutgers baseball team dropped its rubber contest against No. 22 Maryland on Monday afternoon, falling by a score of 9-4 to the Terrapins. On a day where seven total home runs were hit, Maryland used the conditions to its advantage, hitting five big flies to earn the series win.
"There were a lot of little battles in today's game," head coach
Steve Owens said. "Whether we got behind in a count and left the ball in the middle of the plate or got in a count on offense and they got us out -- they won those battles during the game. We've got to regroup and get through this week. We're still in first place in the Big Ten conference and we've got a big weekend at home coming up."
The Scarlet Knights now sit at 37-12 overall and 16-5 in Big Ten play, leading the Terrapins (13-5) in the win column to top the conference standings.
For the second straight day, the wind was blowing hard to right field at Bainton Field and Maryland took advantage of that, tagging RU starter
Sam Bello for four solo home runs in his 3.1 innings of work. Rutgers tried to keep pace with solo homers from
Chris Brito and Josh Kuroda-Grauer to bring the score to 5-2 after five innings.
After the Terps added a run in the sixth,
Danny DiGeorgio hit a two-out, 2-run single to right to make it a 6-4 ballgame and tighten things up again. Maryland, however, rallied in the ninth inning and used a 3-run home run from Chris Alleyne to ice the game and finish off a 9-4 Terp victory.
Rutgers returns to action on Friday to take on Bowling Green in its final home series of the season. The program will honor its graduating seniors on Saturday.
