The #17 Virginia Baseball team dropped its first game of the 2013 season as they fell 4-2 to Maryland Sunday, March 10 at Davenport field.
While their 14 game win streak was snapped - the 'Hoos still won the series with Maryland 2-1.
That is the second best start to the season in program history - the 'Hoos went 19-0 in 2009.
The Cavaliers kept the audience engaged in the bottom of the ninth when they were down three.
Brandon Downes got a one-out single to cut the deficit to two.
But Reed Gragnani grounded out to second base to end the game.
"We're not going to win them all," Virginia head coach Brian O'Connor said. "I don't know of a college baseball team that has gone 56-0 in the regular season. We have a very good club, and we've shown that over the first four weeks of the season. We certainly at times are showing some inexperience in some areas, but our guys fought until the end and that's the important thing. We were in the ballgame at the end and we were fighting, scratching and clawing there in the ninth inning. We were only a hit away from tying the game and sometimes that's all you can ask for."
The Cavaliers matched a season-high by leaving 15 base runners stranded.
Virginia had runners on base in each inning but the 6th.
The team had a rough day in the field with three errors that led to three unearned runs for the Terps.
Sophomore Nick Howard worked the mound for a career-high 6 1/3 innings and allowed just one earned run.
Howard struck out 8 and did not walk a batter.
Howard said, "We definitely brought our intensity. We had our best at bats in that last inning. Its unfortunate that we came up short but I mean we battled all through 9 innings and sometimes we wont push across that many runs."
The Cavaliers 14-game homestand comes to a close Wednesday when they host Liberty.
