Photo courtesy of Kevin Snyder/Maryland Athletics.
Maryland baseball catcher Devin Russell had two things for his mother on his way back to the dugout from the final team huddle.
The first was an embrace. The second was a home run ball from Friday’s win, which pitcher Jake Yeager had gone and found for him.
“What a way to go out, huh?” his mother said to him.
Russell was silent. But if it was his last game in a Terps uniform, it was a game where he led his team to victory with two decisive home runs.
The 2026 campaign was a disappointing one for Maryland baseball, finishing under .500 for the second season in a row. The Terps found a way to end it on a positive note, which came in the form of a home win to close the season.
Maryland (27-29, 9-21) hosted Penn State (16-35, 9-21) at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium on Saturday in the rubber match of a three-game set and delivered a 6-4 win behind a two-homer performance from its redshirt junior backstop.
Russell finished the season for the Terps with nine home runs. He’s also the only member of the 2026 Maryland baseball roster who won the Big Ten Championship with the Terps in 2023.
Should this be Russell’s final season at Maryland, the catcher said he wants his legacy to be that of a true teammate.
“I just hope I affected the people on this team in a positive way,” Russell said. “I honestly don’t care how people see me as a player, I just want them to see me as a good person.”
For Terps manager Matt Swope, this was the way he felt Russell deserved to go out.
“He probably single-handedly carried us these past couple of days,” Swope said. “He was kind of the last to be on some of those teams that were really, really good when we were here, so I’m really, really just happy for him as a senior to kind of close out like that.”
Logan Hastings concluded his sophomore campaign with a career-high strikeout count despite a rough start. He gave up a home run to Jayden Davis just two pitches into the outing, but settled in after the first, striking out at least one batter in each of his next five innings to end the day with twelve.
The Terps improved to 27-29 on the season with the win – an identical record to last year’s team and an unacceptable result to Swope.
“It was a disappointing season,” Swope said. “If you look at today and yesterday, [that]’s kind of what we hoped would be every weekend, and even if two out of three games you’re playing good, complimentary baseball, throwing strikes, playing decent defense, getting some timely hitting, you hope [the game result] ends up more like that].”
Following this season, Maryland could lose some talent in the transfer portal. Last year, shortstop Chris Hacopian transferred to Texas A&M and is now projected to go as high as the top ten in the MLB draft. The Terps also lost power hitting first baseman Hollis Porter to Texas Tech, although injuries have limited his ability to contribute.
Swope said he was confident that he could retain his talent.
“We could have the entire team back,” Swope said. “I’m excited to go through these meetings and see how we’re going to build the core back up, but the fact that we can have everybody back is really, really, really important.”
