Baseball Team Drops Maryland 13-6

March 29, 2002

Home runs by Jarrod Schmidt, Jeff Baker and Collin Mahoney spurred top-ranked Clemson to a 13-6 victory over Maryland Friday night before a crowd of 4,343 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The Tigers won their first conference game and improved to 21-1 while dropping Maryland to 17-7.

Steve Reba (7-0) gave up six runs on 10 hits but collected the victory for Clemson. The senior righthander now has 27 career wins and is tied for fifth in school history in that category. Jared Stuart (3-1) picked up his first loss of the year for Maryland.

The Tiger offense got going early with three runs in the first inning. Khalil Greene opened the scoring with an RBI single. Kyle Frank scored on Michael Johnson’s groundout and Schmidt hit a bloop single to centerfield that plated Greene.

Maryland got on the board in the second inning after Kevin McDonald doubled to lead off the frame and Anthony Buffone singled him in. The Terps tied the score in the third inning off of John McCurdy’s two-run homer.

Greene came up big for the Tigers again in the bottom of the third. He hit Stuart’s 1-2 offering up the middle to score Frank. Greene then stole second base and scored on Baker’s double to right. Johnson extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a single through the right side to set up a play at the plate.

Right fielder Matt Swope’s throw was on the money and catcher Kevin McDonald tagged out a sliding Baker. The scoring in the inning was not over, however, as Schmidt blasted a two-run shot to center field to give the Tigers a 7-3 lead.

Clemson went deep again in the fifth. Baker launched his sixth home run of the season, this one a two-run shot, to increase the Tiger lead to 9-3.

Maryland got back three runs in the seventh. McDonald walked with the bases loaded and Buffone singled in two runs to chase Reba. Relief pitcher Jeff Hahn induced a 6-4-3 double play to get the Tigers out of the inning.

Catcher Collin Mahoney dashed any hopes of a Terrapin comeback in the bottom of the seventh with a deep blast to left-center that made the final margin 13-6.

Scheduling Note: Due to inclement weather possibilities on Sunday, the two teams will attempt to play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1:00 PM.