Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Adam Fried

The Terrapin pitching staff came up with its best performance of the season in last night's 5-1 win over Delaware, and it wasn't because Terps pitchers overpowered or fooled hitters.

The most important statistics of the game weren't the nine strikeouts pitchers Brett Tidball, Brett Harman and Matt Quinn recorded, but the walks they didn't.

"They did a nice job, it was good to see them pounding the strike zone," coach Terry Rupp said. "We got behind in some counts but they made some pitches and that's something we haven't been doing."

For a staff giving up an average of five free passes per game, the two it gave up last night wasn't only an improvement, but also salvaged a Terps victory.

Delaware had nine hits on the night, many hit hard to the outfield, but the lack of walks left extra Blue Hen runners off the base paths and allowed Terps pitchers to strand 12 Delaware runners.

"When you put the ball in the strike zone people are going to get hits, but it's all about mixing speeds and locations," said Tidball, who won his first game of the season. "After this weekend when we gave up a lot of walks, we proved today that we won't walk a lot of people and give up a lot of runs."

The offense managed to scratch out two runs in the second inning after having runners on second and third with no outs. Consecutive groundouts by sophomore rightfielder AJ Casario and senior centerfielder Nick Jowers gave the Terps all the scoring they would need.

Jowers hit a solo homer in the fourth to make the lead 3-0. After Delaware scored a run in the seventh, junior leftfielder Gerry Spessard hit a two-run homer in the eighth to put the game away at 5-1.

"My first at bat they kind of caught me off guard and they came inside when I wasn't expecting it," said Spessard. "So in that at bat they gave me a fastball middle-in and I just drove it."

"I'm glad I got to see Jones score," said Spessard, whose homer drove in pinch-runner and junior pitcher Brett Jones. "I don't think he's on the bases too much."

It was only fitting that a pitcher scored, as the night belonged to the pitching staff.

Rupp hopes to see a repeat performance of what he called no question the best pitching effort of his team's season against Delaware tonight.

"I'll tell you what, they're a very good, very talented club," said Rupp. "I know [today] is not going to be easy."

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