The Grounds

It felt like we played uphill most of the day/night. UMd got the leadoff hitter on base 5 times in the first game and us only once. We also flew out to OFs a lot in that first game, with few ground balls. UMd seemed to get the most out of its offense with the small ball approach. When I reviewed their stats going into the game, they seemed like a light-hitting group with 2 HRs in their starting lineup and us with 9, a big difference from year's past. UMd seemed to compete at a pretty high level against our talented players. They also came into the game with a pretty good staff ERA for their pitchers that took the mound. This did not seem like your weak UMd team in the last 10 years, and we were fortunate to get the W in the tossup first game. Experience counted for us on the day, as King and Fisher did their deeds and SS had a good ACC start, along with the 2 vets coming out of the 'pen.