Maryland baseball comfortably defeats Bryant, 7-0, to secure series win

There were two men on two outs in Logan Koester’s opening inning. Bryant looked to get off to a hot start after falling behind early in the opening game of the schools’ weekend series.

Koester remained unfazed. Maryland’s starter forced a ground ball to shortstop to end the inning.

Koester and Nate Haberthier combined on the mound to produce the Terps’ first shutout of their year, and consistent scoring allowed them to secure the weekend series win over the Bulldogs with a 7-0 victory at home on Saturday.

Maryland’s starting pitching continued to shine in the second game of its weekend series against Bryant. Koester surpassed Friday starter Kenny Lippman’s inning total, going seven shutout innings and surrendering only three hits.

Coach Matt Swope had a lot of praise for Koester after the game, calling his performance “an elite start.”

Koester entered his third start of the season with just three strikeouts and more than doubled his season double, inducing four strikeouts. Koester stranded men early in the first inning and continued to do so, forcing the Bulldogs to leave seven men on base. 

“We do a bunch of stuff on TrackMan,” Koester said. “I’m just working on being able to get the balls up on fastballs and 0-2 misses.”

Haberthier relieved Koester to start the eighth inning and produced two shutout innings, which was “super important,” according to Swope, after Haberthier’s troublesome performance in his last relief effort against VCU.

Despite a very different Terps lineup, their offense remained consistent, scoring in five of their eight innings.

“What’s a little bit different from the past couple of years is you’re not going to see the same lineup every single day,” Swope said. “I think that’ll be something you see throughout the year until…we can solidify some things.

The Terps got on the board early, like they consistently have done at home. A fielding error and a wild pitch allowed Devin Russell to scorch a ground ball past the Bulldogs’ shortstop, scoring Chris Hacopian from second.

Maryland expanded its lead in the third inning. Chris Hacopian loaded the bases on a chip shot to center field that fell in between Bryant’s shortstop, center fielder and second baseman, and a pair of hits from Alex Calarco and Elijah Lambros later on the frame grew the Terps’ lead to 4-0 — continuing the offense’s recent production with the bases loaded. 

Hacopian’s second base hit came in the fourth inning and extended Maryland’s advantage with a blistering ground ball to the left side of the infield. The RBI gave Hacopian his third in two games against the Bulldogs.

The Terps added two more runs late in the game on a productive out from Kevin Keister and a towering home run from Devin Russell to left field, pushing the lead to the final score of 7-0. 

Swope said that he made an adjustment in Russell’s swing prior to today’s game and was happy that he executed it in a game.

“He [was] collapsing his back knee,” Swope said. “His back knee was collapsing, so he was working underneath the ball a little bit too much, so we kept his back knee more strong.”

Maryland will look to secure Swope’s first series sweep on Sunday at 1 p.m.