Lofty dreams fade for baseball as realities of ACC hit hard

Through the first dozen games of the season, Eric Bakich's vision for a revitalized Terrapin baseball program seemed to be becoming a reality.

The Terps were 8-4, with three of those losses coming at the hands of national power Texas. And in even that four-game series, a decisive victory and a near-win for the Terps had them plenty confident for the 2011 season, Bakich's second as the Terps' coach. Series victories against Army and Canisius and a stretch of midweek wins only added to the team's optimism.

But since a March 8 victory over Delaware that set the Terps' highwater mark for the season, a 3-9 stretch has followed, reviving memories of the overmatched teams that were hallmarks of the program's last era.

"It's probably getting a little bit more frustrating, I would say," second baseman Ryan Holland said. "In the beginning, in the first couple series, we were kind of like, ‘Oh well, you know, it's early, we'll still get them. We need to work on some things.' But now we're kind of getting frustrated, and we're not liking losing."

The Terps' downturn has coincided with the start of ACC play, a portion of their schedule that the team acknowledged was important not only for achieving their goal of making the NCAA Tournament but also for differentiating themselves from previous Terp teams, which have struggled mightily in conference play.

So far, Bakich's influence hasn't changed much about their place in the league. The Terps (11-13, 1-8 ACC) were swept at then-No. 25 Georgia Tech, managed only one victory in a three-game home series against Boston College and were plagued by uncharacteristically bad defense in a sweep at No. 3 Virginia.

While they have shown flashes of promise in league play, one victory in their first nine ACC games has them in the basement of the Atlantic Division.

"We're going to compete with everybody. We saw that in Texas," starting pitcher David Carroll said. "Competing shouldn't help us be content. We should be content with winning."

With games against ACC powers Florida State and Clemson looming, wins will be hard to come by. The upcoming schedule, compounded by the Terps' close losses to Virginia and overall recent struggles, has made the going all the more painful.

"I think it was really tough to swallow, especially being the third week in," Holland said. "With the schedule we got coming up, with the next two weekends being top-20 contending teams, it's really tough to swallow because we had [Virginia] for two games."

Still, Bakich and his players believe this team is closer to the one that nearly split a series at Texas than the one that has faltered greatly in ACC play.

"There's going to be a time in this season, if this thing is going to turn around and we're going to be the team that we all know we can be," Bakich said. "The team that played in Austin, Texas, and beat the hell out of Texas, 10-1, and played well against them in that second game, that team that was flying around with energy and playing with a lot of confidence and playing fearless, there's going to be something."

schneider@umdbk.com