Maryland baseball cruises with early lead to defeat Mount St. Mary’s, 14-3

Brayden Martin looked to continue Maryland’s explosive first inning with the bases loaded and two outs.

The freshman did just that. He ripped a line drive into left field to clear the bases, blowing the game open early for the Terps. 

Maryland baseball cruised following its six-run first inning en route to a 14-3 win over Mount St. Mary’s in its home opener Tuesday. The Terps rebounded following their loss last Sunday, easily taking care of the Mountaineers.

“We just got to be more consistent,” coach Matt Swope said. “I know we ended up pushing 14 across, but we really only had two good innings.”

Mount St. Mary’s starting pitcher Jakob Foster’s outing ended quickly — he recorded just one out before Maryland’s lineup forced his exit, with six of the Terps’ first seven hitters reaching base safely. 

A pair of doubles by Chris Hacopian and Sam Hojnar and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Alex Calarco got Maryland out to an early 3-0 lead. Then Martin’s three-run knock doubled the Terps’ lead — a positive sign after Maryland couldn’t deliver with the bases loaded last weekend.

The Terps’ offense then went silent after the first inning. Mountaineers’ reliever Maximus McCrary pitched 3.2 innings, allowing no runs off just two hits to settle Mount St. Mary’s on the mound. McCray was taken out in the bottom of the fifth by Matt Stam, and Maryland immediately jumped at the opportunity. They added a run off an Elijah Lambros double to right field to finally strike after three scoreless frames.

Maryland’s offense added another run in the bottom of the seventh and its second six-spot frame of the day in the bottom of the eighth.

A pair of singles from Hojnar and Calarco in the eighth pushed the Terps’ lead to. Then Devin Russell demolished a three-run home run to left-center field and Eddie Hacopian added one more run for the Terps with a base hit to seal the offense’s excellent day at the plate.

“It felt great,” Russell said about his homerun. “It’s always good to get the first one out of the way and when the lights went off it was a real good feeling.”

Nine of Maryland’s 11 position players to appear in the game recorded a hit, with Hojnar and both Hacopians notching two-hit performances.

Mount St. Mary’s offense got off to a much slower start than the Terps’, not getting on the board until the top of the third with a sacrifice fly to right by Josh Braxton, but that was all the Mountaineers could muster off Maryland starter Ryan Van Buren early on.

The Mountaineers’ lone other damage against Van Buren came in the top of the sixth.

Mount St. Mary’s appeared to add two runs in the frame after Shane Wockley seemed to hit a two-run home run down the right-field line, but an official review from the umpires resulted in a foul ball. Wockley then notched an infield single in his second chance at the plate, scoring Stephen Katch to officially end Van Buren’s night. 

Van Buren gave a strong outing for the Terps, going 5.2 innings and allowing just two runs off four hits to keep Mount St. Mary’s at bay. 

“He was super efficient,” Swope said. “He’s been steady…so I just can’t say enough about him.”

The Mountaineers scored a late run in the top of the ninth, but the only thing it changed was the final score with the result all-but sealed as Maryland came out victorious in its first midweek of the season.