In the bottom of the eighth inning of Sunday’s contest against Northwestern, the Maryland Terrapins’ offense desperately needed an offensive boost. Junior outfielder Marty Costes had just singled with two outs, but with the Terps trailing 3-2 and the offense being relatively quiet all game, things looked bleak.
Enter Kevin Biondic.
The senior first baseman launched a two-run home run over the left-center field fence to give Maryland its first lead since the first inning.
Half an inning later, he retired Connor Lind out with the bases loaded to earn the save as the Terps (14-14, 2-1) picked up a 4-3 win to clinch a series victory to start their Big Ten schedule.
“He’s a winner man,” said head coach Rob Vaughn about Biondic.
Junior reliever John Murphy, who pitched a scoreless eighth and got the first two outs of the ninth got the win, but it’s safe to say that Biondic, who had a large group of family and friends in attendance, was the hero for Maryland on Sunday.
“It’s a pretty good feeling, especially against a hometown team,” said Biondic, an Illinois native. “Yes I got a big hit, but we also won the series versus them.”
Besides Biondic’s late-game heroics both at the plate and on the mound, Hunter Parsons played a big part in the win with a gutsy performance.
“What was unbelievable was what Hunter Parsons did for us today,” said Vaughn.
Although it did not compare to his complete game shutout last weekend, Parsons’ ability to work out of jams throughout his seven innings of work, in which he allowed three runs, kept the Terps in the ballgame. It marked a sign of growth for Parsons, who has struggled at times in the past.
“I think he’s just really matured,” said catcher Justin Morris about his pitcher. “When adversity hits him, he’s ready to take it on.”
The three runs allowed by Parsons all came in the second inning. An RBI-double by Jack Dunn along with RBI-singles from Alex Erro and Will Bourbon put Northwestern up 3-2 at the time.
Wildcats’ starter Jack Pagliarini also had a strong day on the mound despite a shaky first inning where he gave up a solo homerun to Nick Dunn and an RBI-single to AJ Lee. Pagliarin would settle down, stifling the Maryland offense through the middle innings and retiring 15 straight batters during innings 2-6.
“He just kind of had us off balance,” said Vaughn “We really couldn’t take an aggressive swing all day.”
His day would end after 7 ⅔ innings of four-run ball, as the last batter he would face would be Biondic.
After struggling to complete comebacks earlier in the season, the Terps have now won two games in a row while trailing for most of the contest.
“We haven’t had any of those this season, I think that’s huge for us,” Biondic said about the come-from-behind wins. “Now we know we can play from behind.”
This also marks the second consecutive winning weekend for Maryland, and with the heart of the season starting up, the team will look to carry this momentum forward in the upcoming weeks.
“If we can keep building on that toughness and showing grit kinda when things aren’t going great, that gonna be the biggest key,” Vaughn said. “To me, that’s the takeaway from this weekend.”
Maryland will now prepare for a midweek matchup against William & Mary on Tuesday in College Park before hosting Illinois next weekend.
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- No. 8 Maryland field hockey falls to No. 6 Rutgers in penalty shootout, 3-2 - September 28, 2023
- Maryland women’s soccer stymied by No. 6 Penn State, 4-0 - September 15, 2023
