Montville's injury sends baseball shuffling

Terrapin baseball left fielder Michael Montville's hit-by-pitch in a March 5 game against Canisius seemed at the time like a minor detail. After all, Montville stayed in the game and even stole a base before leaving two innings later.

But when Montville later learned that the pitch had broken his right hand, keeping him out of action for around a month, the Terps' offense would soon feel Montville's pains in a profound way.

The absence of the freshman — the team's leader in home runs, on-base percentage and slugging percentage — understandably has coincided with a power outage for the Terp bats. Against Georgia Tech last weekend, the Terps (9-8, 0-3 ACC) managed only five runs in a three-game sweep at the hands of the Yellow Jackets, prompting coach Erik Bakich to switch up the lineup.

In the first game of the Liberty series, the move didn't pay dividends. The Terps mustered only five hits against the Flames en route to an 11-4 loss and what Bakich called one of the worst offensive showings of the year.

But in the second game of the series, the revised batting order, along with the emergence of another corner outfielder and a new hitting emphasis, revived the weak Terp hitting in the series finale against the Flames, offering a glimmer of offensive hope as they prepare for a weekend series against Boston College (6-8, 0-3 ACC).

While Bakich had shortstop Alfredo Rodriguez and center fielder Korey Wacker in the top two spots of the order through the season's first 15 games, he moved them to the No. 7 and 8 spots, respectively, which Bakich feels has helped them rebound from slow starts to the season.

"I think Wacker and Rodriguez were probably two guys who were, whether knowingly or unknowingly, probably trying a little bit too hard and putting a little bit too much pressure on themselves to be the catalyst and to be the table-setters and trying to do too much," Bakich said. "So moving them down in the order I think has helped them to relax a little bit."

The two combined for seven hits in the two-game set against Liberty, while right fielder Charlie White has stepped into the leadoff spot and is hitting .341, helping to fill the void left by Montville.

"I just went up to the plate with a plan every time," White said. "Looking for my pitch just trying to get on base, manufacture runs. That's about it. I feel pretty comfortable up there."

On top of the batting order shakeup, the team attributed Wednesday's success to a new mentality at the plate that Bakich and the coaching staff instilled before their victory over the Flames.

"At the plate, we just focused on being aggressive and getting our balls in the red zone, the hitter zone, and being aggressive to those pitches that we want to drive," Wacker said. "If we don't get that pitch, we lay off and put a ball somewhere in play. Coaches know best, and they sat down and talked to us right before the game. And we exploded today."

After the Terps dropped the first game of the series to Liberty, Bakich compared baseball to boxing, saying the Terps simply couldn't take a punch. But with a new sense of optimism at the plate, the Terps feel they're ready to get back in the ACC ring against Boston College.

"We're going to come out strong," pitcher Chuck Ghysels said. "We're going to come out and start throwing haymakers. That's how we do."

schneider@umdbk.com