Chris Clem enters the weekend one strikeout shy of 200 for his career.
April 8, 2005
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TERPS HOST NO. 7 NORTH CAROLINA THIS WEEKEND
The weekend after recording 2-1 wins over No. 1 Georgia Tech (Saturday, April 2nd) and the Bowie Baysox (exhibition - Tuesday, April 5th), Maryland baseball will host No. 7 North Carolina in its sixth conference series of the season. Chris Clem is expected to face North Carolina All-American Andrew Miller in Friday's series opener (7 p.m. at Shipley Field).
Audio broadcasts for each game will be available on www.wmucsports.com, and live stats will be available by logging on to the www.umterps.com baseball site.
Information can now be submitted to join an online newsletter mailing list. Titled "The Maryland Baseball Bulletin", the newsletter is sent to you each time new information is posted to the Maryland website. This includes weekend previews, game recaps, feature stories and more.
PREVIEWING THE TAR HEELS
2005 Record: 24-6 (8-2, Atlantic Coast Conference).
2004 Record:43-21 (14-10 ACC).
Last Meeting: May 27, 2004 - North Carolina 14, Maryland 0 (ACC Tournament).
Notes: North Carolina is averaging 3.7 runs per game away from home ... the Tar Heels have a six-game conference win streak and have won nine out of their last 10 games overall ... all of Carolina's games this season have been at least nine innings, with only six of 30 lasting more than three hours in duration.
North Carolina enters the weekend having won nine out of its last 10 games and its last six in conference play. The Tar Heels are second only to last weekend's opponent Georgia Tech with an 8-2 record in conference play and are tied for the best overall record in the league at 24-6.
Carolina is led by a pair of All-America sophomore pitchers in Andrew Miller and Daniel Bard. The respective Friday and Saturday starters anchor a Tar Heel staff that leads the conference in earned run average (2.06) and opponent batting average (.210). Miller is 6-0 and ranks second in the ACC with 10.55 strikeouts per nine innings. Bard, who recently worked through two rain delays in the Tar Heels' win over Virginia, is 5-2 with a 2.49 ERA and .194 BAA this season.
Equally impressive has been the Tar Heel bullpen, led by sophomore Robert Woodard, one of three conference relievers on the NCBWA Stopper Watch List, Jonathan Hovis and closer Matt Danford. Woodard has made four starts and seven relief appearances this season, compiling a 35:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Danford is among the ACC leaders with five saves and has given up just two earned runs in 21.0 innings this season (0.86 ERA). Hovis is 3-0 with two saves in 14 appearances and has allowed just three extra-base hits in 30.1 innings.
The Carolina offense is averaging 6.7 runs per game this season and trails only Georgia Tech and Miami in both slugging (.456) and home runs (33). Matt Ellingoton is one of eight Tar Heel regulars with a .300 batting average and leads the team with 28 RBI. Freshman Seth Williams leads the team with seven home runs and a .643 slugging percentage, and Mike Daniel has a team-best .372 batting average.
CURRENT STATS AND TRENDS
Pitching
Senior Chris Clem currently sits at 199 career strikeouts, one shy of becoming the 10th Terrapin pitcher in school history to record 200 career K's ... Justin Hulse has walked one batter in his last 8.0 innings ... junior Michael Meagher seems to have emerged as the team's closer, having recorded saves in his last two appearances ... he has retired 10 straight batters and has seven strikeouts and no walks for the season ... scouts scrambled to find their radar guns and position themselves behind home plate to watch Meagher pick up his first career save against Temple ... Ryan Moorer put together the best outing of his career against the Bowie Baysox on Tuesday ... although the numbers didn't count towards his season stats, he picked up a win by allowing four hits and no earned runs over 5.0 strong innings ... Ben Pfinsgraff leads the team with five quality starts this season (6.0+ innings, three or fewer earned runs) ... five of his eight starts have been in one-run games, and the team is 3-0 when he goes at least 7.0 innings ... Mike Sufczynski got a no-decision against UMBC on Wednesday, but has won all three of his decisions this season ... Brad Taylor has a 15:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio this season ... Brett Tidball threw the Saturday portion of a suspended game at Georgia Tech last week (4/1-4/2) and didn't allow a hit in 4.0 scoreless innings ... he struck out three and retired the last 12 batters he faced.
Offense
Chad Durakis had a 12-game hit streak snapped in the second game of the Georgia Tech series, but has hits in 13 of his last 15 games ... Will Frazier is starting to heat up, raising his average 76 points (.222 to .298) over a current 12-game hit streak ... this past week, Frazier became just the second player in school history to record 200 hits and 50 doubles in his career ... Nick Jowers has hits in five of his last six games ... Matt Maropis has seven hits, including four doubles, in his last nine at-bats ... Maropis made his first start of the season at third base against UMBC (4/6) ... Truan Mehl has hits in 26 of the team's 31 games this season ... he has reached base in 10 of his last 13 plate appearances and has nine RBI in his last 11 games ... freshman Joe Palumbo is tied for the team lead with 13 walks and has struck out just five times ... this week against UMBC, he replaced an injured Nick Jowers in right field ... it was the third position he's played this season ... all eight of Bobby Ryan's hits this season have come in multi-hit games (four games with two hits) ... Elliot Singletary currently has a season-high six-game hit streak ... Singletary had two doubles against UMBC this week to move into the team lead with 13 and into second place in the conference with 0.50/game ... Jordan Wilson has driven in runs in 11 games this season, with Maryland going 8-3 in those games ... Wilson tied a career-high with three runs in consecutive games last week (3/30 vs. Temple, 4/1 at Georgia Tech).
CAREER MILESTONES YOU COULD SEE THIS WEEKEND
Terp seniors Chris Clem and Will Frazier are on the brink of setting career milestones, with both likely to do so this weekend against No. 7 North Carolina. Clem, Friday's starter is one strikeout shy of becoming the 10th Terp pitcher in school history to record 200 career strikeouts. If he reaches the mark, he'll move on to his second Maryland top-ten list, already ranking fourth with 259.1 career innings.
Frazier has his name on seven Maryland career lists, including doubles, home runs and extra-base hits. He has 80 extra-base hits in his career, leaving him one shy of tying a school record and two from breaking it. He has seven extra-base hits in his last eight games, so three weekend games could push him to the top of the list. He is also 11 at-bats shy of third place, one run shy of eighth place and five hits shy of third place on respective career lists.
A MEMORABLE WEEK FOR MARYLAND BASEBALL
The past seven days have featured some memorable moments for the Maryland baseball program. The Terps took down the top-ranked team in the nation on Saturday, April 2, and Ben Pfinsgraff, the winning pitcher in that game, was named ACC Pitcher of the Week for his effort. In an exhibition game against the Bowie Baysox on Tuesday, April 5, freshman Ryan Moorer pitched the Terps to a 2-1 win over the Orioles' double-A affiliate. The Terrapin defense played some of its tightest defense of the season behind Moorer, including Matt Maropis who started at third base for the first time.
Former Terrapin pitcher Steve Schmoll also made a splash this week, making an improbable run at a spot on the Los Angeles Dodgers' 25-man active roster. Schmoll didn't even start the spring in the Dodgers' big league camp, but made four late appearances and didn't allow a run in 4.0 innings.
On Wednesday, Schmoll made his major league debut in 10-4 Dodgers win. Schmoll retired all three of the batters he faced in the game and was dubbed by ESPN's Chris Berman as Steve "It's a Schmoll World After All".
On the same day, Eric Milton made his first start of the season and 200th of his career. He was the winning pitcher in a 9-5 Cincinnati Reds win over the New York Mets. He went 5.1 innings and gave up three earned runs for his first win in a Reds uniform.
PFINSGRAFF NAMED ACC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Junior right-hander Ben Pfinsgraff was named the Atlantic Coast Conference's Co-Pitcher of the Week earlier this week after leading the Terps to a win over then-No. 1 Georgia Tech on Saturday. Pfinsgraff threw a season-high 131 pitches and held the conference's top offense to just five hits and one run in 7.2 gutsy innings.
Making Pfinsgraff's start more amazing is the fact that he walked more batters in the game (six) than he had in his previous seven starts combined (five). He prevented Tech, an offense that picks up steam and puts up big numbers quickly, from coming through with a big hit in one of the biggest wins in program history.
MEHL PACING THE TERP OFFENSE
Though he had a team-best 13-game hit streak snapped in the first game of the Georgia Tech series (4/1), senior outfielder Truan Mehl responded in a big way in the remaining two games of the series. In Saturday's big win, Mehl drove in both of Maryland's runs, had three hits in three at-bats and walked once. In the Sunday series finale, he came through with four hits in five at-bats, including his first home run of the season - a solo shot in the fourth inning.
On Wednesday against UMBC, he had two hits, an HBP, an RBI and a run scored, moving his three-game hit total to nine. He has driven in at least one run in five of his last six games and has a total of 10 RBI in his last 11 games.
Mehl now leads the Terp offense in most offensive categories, including: batting average (.365), hits (46), RBI (19), total bases (66), on-base percentage (.431) and stolen bases (six). He has been a consistent force at the top of the lineup all season, having hits in 26 of the team's 31 games this season.
FINDING MAROPIS TIME IN THE INFIELD
Head coach Terry Rupp is finding ways to get junior Matt Maropis at-bats. He started the year at second base, but had some early defensive issues and started finding time as a designated hitter. Maropis has been getting work at first base in the past week and played some innings there in the final game of the Georgia Tech series. In the team's exhibition game against the Bowie Baysox, he started and played all seven innings at third base, then started at third base against UMBC on Wednesday.
In the exhibition at Bowie, Maropis made several agile plays and scored Maryland's first of two runs with an RBI groundout. Against UMBC, he tied career-highs with four hits and three RBI, raising his season average from .217 to .257. In his last three games, Maropis is 7-for-9 with four doubles, four RBI and two runs scored. And defensively, he seems more comfortable making the throw across the diamond than the short throw from second base to first and has more agility and quickness than any of the team's previous options at third.
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