Maryland baseball entered Bloomington for a weekend series with Indiana trailing by one game in the Big Ten standings.
The Terps rattled off three-straight victories, leaving two games ahead of their counterpart and in sole possession of first place in a phenomenal weekend.
Maryland (30-15, 11-4 B1G) clinched the series sweep over Indiana (31-14, 9-6 B1G) with a 14-8 victory on Sunday, as the Terps’ bats were once again on fire.
“Our guys didn’t make [the magnitude of the series] bigger than it is,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “60-foot, 6 inches and 90-foot bases, they don’t change anything. And if we go execute and play our game and let the results fall where they may, we can put our head on the pillow at night and be fine with it.”
The Terps beat the Hoosiers by a combined 25 runs on Friday and Saturday, dominating in all facets of the game with explosive hitting and commanding pitching. Nick Dean and Kyle McCoy pitched gems and saved much of Maryland’s bullpen for the final game of the series.
“This was the best three games we’ve played of the year as far as just really good starts, relentless offense, good defense,” Vaughn said on the broadcast postgame.
Vaughn’s ace, Jason Savacool, started on the bump on Sunday. Savacool — who had gone over the century mark in pitch count in each of his last four starts — received a much-needed extra two-day rest, saving the Terps’ best arm for last.
But the junior right-hander struggled against the Hoosiers, getting knocked around for seven earned runs in five innings. It was the most runs Savacool has allowed this season and tied for his shortest outing of the year.
The action got started when sophomore first baseman Eddie Hacopian and fifth-year right fielder Matt Woods teamed up for back-to-back doubles in the second inning, bringing in the first run of the game. The hits flowed in from that point, as sophomore center fielder Elijah Lambros singled the next at-bat and sophomore utilityman Jacob Orr laid down a sac bunt down to score Woods.
Maryland hit three singles in the third inning, scoring two more runs to give it a 4-0 advantage. The Terps were effectively setting up big-play “haymaker” opportunities with “jabs,” as Vaughn likes to put it. Although the haymakers didn’t come early, the jabs were plentiful as Maryland recorded six hits and drew two walks after three frames, signs of a complete and whole offense.
Savacool’s first costly error came in the third when he left one over the plate for freshman right fielder Devin Taylor. The Hoosier star took full advantage, crushing a ball over the wall in right for a three-run jack. Taylor had been 1-for-8 in the series heading into the final day but found his groove against Savacool, ultimately hitting two long balls for a total of five RBIs.
The Terps forced Indiana starter Ryan Kraft, who had a 32-inning scoreless streak before giving up three runs last weekend to Ohio State, out of the action after just three innings. The sophomore-left hander allowed a double and pegged junior catcher Luke Shliger to start the fourth before being pulled.
Kraft allowed seven hits, five earned runs and walked two en route to his worst statistical outing of the season.
The pitching change didn’t seem to affect the Terps, as senior third baseman Nick Lorusso drove in their fifth run of the game with an RBI single to score junior second baseman Kevin Keister.
Lambros followed up on the scoring in the fifth frame with a solo homer, his 12th of the year.
But the Indiana bats responded with four more runs in the bottom half of the frame. Taylor hit his second long ball, this time a two-run jack, while a sac fly and a double brought in the other two runs.
Junior shortstop Matt Shaw didn’t let that lead hold, however, as he crushed a solo homer — his fourth-straight game with a long ball and his team-leading 18th of the year — in the top of the sixth to tie the score at seven.
A 50-minute lightning delay ensued following the top of the sixth, and Savacool did not retake the mound at the resumption.
Following a brief resume of play, a second delay and an eventual return, the Terps put forth two huge runs courtesy of a Shliger single. They added two more runs to their total in the eighth, as Orr and Keister each hit RBI singles to give the Terps an 11-7 lead.
Lambros clubbed his second homer of the game in the ninth with a two-run shot after Woods brought in a run with a bunt, giving Maryland its 14th run.
Redshirt junior right-hander David Falco Jr. shut the door with three innings of relief and the Terps left Bloomington with their first conference series sweep of the season.
“Our future’s in our hands now,” Vaughn said after Saturday’s win. “We go do our job and win games, we control our own destiny. I think as a team that’s all you can ask for.”
