That’s right, The Diamondback has its own intramural softball team and we are pretty good if I might say so.

Behind the steady leadership of manager and former Sports Editor Jeff Amoros (and trust me, there are a lot of egos to manage on this squad) and the innate pitching talent of current Sports Editor Adi Joseph there’s little doubt in my mind we are taking the title.

It’s less than an hour until our second playoff game and I am pumped. This game started Sunday but got postponed by rain after the other team scored seven runs in the first inning. So thankfully, we get to start all over and dominate.

The key to our success is without a doubt the pitching repertoire of Joseph. Watching him strategically loft a softball into the air is like watching Picasso paint. He can get a little intense though. In fact I’m told there was a player on another team that took offense to the way Joseph was staring at her while she was at the plate. She even let him know about it in the post game handshake.

But I say this person just didn’t understand the magic that is Adi Joseph on the mound or for that matter, the mystique surrounding The Diamondback’s softball team.

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I know it came against a weaker nonconference opponent. I know Delaware’s best hitter- Alex Buchholz- didn’t play until a pinch-hit appearance in the ninth inning. I know the Terps baseball team would rather be playing in Jacksonville for the ACC Championship in two weeks, but a no-hitter in the last game of the season has got to leave the players and coaches with positive feelings towards next year.

More on Swinson’s performance in the Thursday edition of The Diamondback.

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 It’s been a long, sometimes grueling, year for the Terps. They won’t make the ACC tournament as they envisioned when the season started in February. But by the numbers, this team is among the best in program history.

 That’s largely thanks to a veteran squad, including these eight seniors who are about to be honored in a pre-game ceremony.

 Joe Palumbo:  crafty switch-handed hitter who could play a multitude of positions, played shortstop most of the year and did a solid job there, came from a family full of collegiate baseball players so you could tell from day one he understood the game

 Steve Braun: excellent second-baseman, and for most of the season a reliable lead-off man for the Terps offense, had his year ended a week early because of a shoulder injury but his influence will be missed next year

 Nick Jowers: had an excellent year at the plate, but if you ask any Terps player what they’ll remember about Jowers it’s his defensive skills, had great natural instincts for a centerfielder and it showed throughout the year, made a couple of great catches and always made the right jump on flyballs

 Mike Sufczynski: pitcher who was used in some starting situations this year and who did a good job in those starts, also came in out of the bullpen in a game against Virginia Tech this year and shut down the Hokies when the rest of the Terps couldn’t

 Kevin Biringer: saved his best for last with his win against N.C. State yesterday, pitched his career high in innings with 8 innings of 2 run ball, emerged in the second half of the year as a solid weekend starter for coach Terry Rupp and the Terps

 Brad Taylor: side-arm reliever and leader of a bullpen stocked with freshman and sophomore arms, led the team in ERA during his junior season and registered a team-high 5 saves this year

 Brett Tidball: fits the definition of a “crafty-lefty”, started four games for the Terps this year going 2-1, came out of the bullpen and also started midweek games, in the top ten in school history in appearances, pitched seven shut-out innings of relief to defeat No. 3 North Carolina in 2006

 Chad Durakis: reliable catcher, good gap to gap hitter and a team leader, only one hit shy of moving into fifth place in school history and one double shy of third place in school history, and of course he already holds the hit by pitch record

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Hokies ace Angela Tincher struck out 12 Terps in a complete game effort. Only two of the Terps four runs were earned.

Playing in a steady drizzle, the Terps jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning after senior outfielder Jenny Belak scored on a fielding error, and senior catch Brittany Bessho hit her seventh home run of the season, a two-run blast over the centerfield fence.

But Tincher clamped down on the Terps the rest of the way, allowing only three hits after the first inning.

The Hokie offense backed its pitcher up, scoring runs consistently throughout the game. Virginia Tech took a 7-3 lead in the fifth inning off a sacrifice fly by designated player Jessica Everhart.

The Terps would tack on one more run in the seventh inning, but with runners on first and third, Tincher struck out junior second basemen Breanna Shaw to end the game and seal up the victory.

The Terps will take on Boston College, who earlier lost to Florida State on a ninth-inning walk-off grand slam, tonight at 8 p.m. The Terps must win in order to stay alive in the double-elimination tournament. With a win, the Terps will play again at 8 p.m., tomorrow.

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How do we know that? Because Rupp decided to start staff-ace Scott Swinson, who has been pitching in Friday night ACC games against the other team’s ace pitcher all season long.

Rupp’s official reasoning for starting Swinson against a non-conference team like Towson midweek was “his turn is up.” Hard for me to believe that’s the real reason though.

I think the real reason is that Rupp really wants to win this game, maybe more than he wants to win Friday’s game against the Wolfpack, and who can blame him:

- The Terps are unlikely to make the ACC tournament, even with wins over N.C. State this weekend

- The Terps don’t want to lose their third and final game of the year to Towson

- Rupp mentioned on Monday how he’s been hearing a lot of his players, especially seniors, talk about how the Terps can’t lose to Towson for a third time. A lot of the Terps players have played with and against Towson players throughout high school and various summer leagues. There are bragging rights at stake.

So while tonight’s game might seem like just another nonconference tune-up for weekend ACC play, it actually means much more.

Rupp validated that by throwing his ace out there tonight. We’ll see how it works out.

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This is the team’s first game after getting swept at Boston College, another disappointing ACC series in a season full of them. Barring a miracle, the Terps aren’t going to make it to the ACC tournament, and there were times this year when the pressure to make it there hurt them.

But now it’s not about pressure. It’s just about that “pride” thing again among a few other goals:

- With 26 wins right now the Terps can be only the second team in program history to win 30 games. The first and only time that happened was in 2002, when the team won 34 games.

- With three more wins- including the one they will get tonight (yeah so what, I’m guaranteeing a Terps win tonight) – they will have their first winning record since 2002

- With a single win against No.21 N.C. State over the weekend the Terps will have won more than 8 ACC games for the first time since 1980

Basically, there are still some things the Terps can do this season to make it a productive one. So maybe the playing for pride thing is real- we’ll see starting tonight.

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The announcement of the men’s Division I NCAA tournament bracket took place last night at 9 p.m. on ESPNU, a channel that is not readily available in this area. It took some hunting for me to track down the matchups in a timely manner, and if you don’t feel bad for me, how about for the people it affects the most.

Today before lacrosse practice, I asked three different Terps how they got word that their team had earned a No. 7 seed in the tournament. None of them said they watched the selection special.

So the Terps scrambled in any way they could to find out who had made the field of 16 that their own coach had spent the weekend selecting.

“The TV we had didn’t get it, so we were just hearing from friends and stuff,” senior midfielder Max Ritz said.

“I didn’t watch it. I followed it online and stuff,” senior midfielder Drew Evans said.

Freshman attackman Ryan Young’s story was even more depressing.

Apparently, they do get the network, which will have aired over 40 lacrosse games by season’s end, including each NCAA first round and quarterfinal tournament game, down on Tobacco Road.

“I couldn’t watch it, but I had my friend who goes to UNC on the phone the whole time,” Young said.

It all makes me so nauseated that I think I’d like to go watch the end of a replay of a Florida and Tennessee basketball game from this past season that should be finishing up right now on the network.

Oh wait. I can’t.

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They just honored the nine seniors before the game against Yale by giving them their framed jerseys. High up in Tyser Tower at Byrd Stadium it was hard to tell exactly what the mood was like during the ceremony. I’m gonna guess happy.

Actually, I’ll just let coach Dave Cottle speak to the importance of this game, which he addressed in a phone interview on Thursday.

“I think senior day is one of the most important days of the year for us. It’s a chance to honor the kids who have made those sacrifices. I know I get very emotional on senior day because it’s amazing how fast it seems to have gone by. When you have senior day you know you’re at the end of the regular season.”

 But it will be interesting to see how the Terps react in their final regular season game in their final opportunity to impress the NCAA selection committee before the field is set Sunday. An 8 to 10 goal win might be just what this team needs having lost three of its last four.

A last note is you have to hand it to the folks who put on Art Attack last night. The concert didn’t wrap up until close to 11, but everything was apparently cleared out quickly before today’s 1 p.m. game. The lone remnant of Art Attack is a pretty cool waffle pattern visible from my position left by the temporary flooring that was brought in for the event.

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The top three quarterbacks on the depth chart have all looked fairly average so far, with Chris Turner and Josh Portis alternating drives leading the red team, and Jordan Steffy taking all the snaps so far for the white.

Turner’s best play was a 30-yard catch and run by Danny Oquendo that set up a field goal to open the scoring, and Steffy threw a few nice balls on the white team’s second scoring drive that ended with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Steve Pfister.

The white team currently leads 13-3.

The star of the first half was running back Da’Rel Scott, playing for the white team, who rushed eight times for 75 yards and a touchdown. Another 75-yard touchdown run was called back for an illegal motion penalty.

The goat of the first half was kicker Obi Egekeze, who hooked an extra point attempt after Pfister’s touchdown in the second quarter, and doinked a short field goal attempt off the left upright a few minutes later.

The second half is about to begin.

The excitement is off the charts.

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The Terps raced out to 6-1 lead and controlled the game. But North Carolina scored four unanswered goals in the second half to make it a close game. But, unlike last season, the Terps played stifling defense and held on, 6-4, to advance to the ACC championship game.

“The best thing that you can take out of this game is that we won,” senior midfielder Dana Dobbie said. “We scored more goals than they did so we are super excited about that. For us seniors this is our first time going for an ACC championship.”

For the Terps this win was more than just a ticket to the ACC championship game. It was redemption for last season’s collapse in the ACC semifinals.

“Its like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders,” senior attacker Casey Magor said. “We made it past that hump and we are ready to go. We are so excited.”

The Terps raced out to a quick 6-0 lead. But that would be the extent of the Terps offensive fire power. The Terps offense stalled in the second half, and the Tar Heels offense reeled off four goals to cut the lead down to 6-4 with 23:22 to go.

But with Tar Heels within striking distance, the Terps defense held off the comeback to advance.

“They came out hard after [halftime], and they wanted to get back into it. It took us a while but we controlled the ball when we needed to and stopped it when we needed to. We did what we had to do and came out with a win. It may not have been pretty but it worked.”

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