Baseball Hosts Maryland To Open Up ACC Season

March 16, 2000

CLEMSON, S. C. – Clemson (16-3) and Maryland (5-11) open ACC play this weekend at Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Friday (7:15), Saturday (2:00), and Sunday (2:00). The games, which were scheduled to be radio broadcast on the Clemson Sports Network, will not be aired, as the network is covering Lady Tiger basketball in the NCAA Tournament. The Saturday and Sunday games will, however, be broadcast on 104.9 FM, WCCP, which originates out of Clemson.

The #4 Tigers are 39-1 against the Terrapins all-time at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The lone Maryland win was in 1992, a 10-9 victory on Mar. 15. Clemson leads the series 87-33 dating back to 1923. The Tigers won both games in a rain-shortened series at College Park a season ago. Henr’ Stanley was 3-for-6 with five RBIs in the two games and had a clutch late-inning hit in Clemson’s 8-6 win in game one last season. Clemson also downed the Terrapins in the 1999 ACC Tournament by a 7-6 score.

Maryland, led by 10th-year Head Coach Tom Bradley, is coming off a 21-3 blowout of Coppin State on Wednesday. This weekend’s games are the first three of a 10-game road swing. The Terrapins, who are beginning Spring Break, will travel straight to Tallahassee for two mid-week games with Florida A&M and a weekend series with #1 Florida State.

Maryland, who is 2-3 at home and 3-8 away from home, has 46 hits in its last three games to raise its team batting average to .292. Senior Craig Munroe leads the Terrapins with a .394 batting average along with four homers, seven doubles, and 13 RBIs. Junior Steve Oursler is hitting .347, while senior Jason Mohap is hitting .333 with five doubles, three homers, and 14 RBIs. After a slow start, Chuck Easter is 13-for-30 (.433) in his last seven games.

Senior lefthander Jamie Hammond (2-3, 6.52 ERA) will start on the mound in game one for Maryland. Junior righthander Mark Martin (1-1, 3.80 ERA) will start game two. Martin has allowed 18 hits, eight walks, and no homers while striking out 20 in 21.1 innings this season. Senior lefthander Joe Hart (1-2, 5.81 ERA) will start game three. Maryland has a 5.51 team ERA and 2.13 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Senior righthander Scott Berney (5-0, 0.49 ERA) will start on the mound for Clemson in game one. Freshman righthander Jarrod Schmidt (1-0, 1.23 ERA) will start in game two and senior righthander Ryan Mottl (5-0, 1.08 ERA) will start game three. Mottl pitched 7.0 shutout innings to earn the win against East Carolina on Tuesday. Mottl needs one more victory to tie Kris Benson for third place in the Tiger recordbooks for career wins with 29. Clemson’s team ERA stands at 2.05 entering the series.