Photo courtesy Dylan Davies/Maryland Terrapins
With the Terps starting to break away in the sixth inning, freshman and Minnesota native Paul Jones II came up to the plate with two outs and two runners on base. He would take an 0-1 pitch deep to right field for his second home run of his career and extend the Terps’ lead to six.
The Maryland Terrapins (24-27, 9-16 Big Ten) would use that lead to coast to an 8-2 win over the Minnesota Gophers (22-25, 8-17) to take the first game of an important series.
Redshirt sophomore and season-long ace, Kyle McCoy, got the start on the mound for the Terps.
McCoy has made every Friday start so far for the Terps and has helped lead the Terps to series-opening wins in the last two series against Penn State and Nebraska.
He consistently pitches long games, a reason for that is to allow more flexibility in the pitching staff for the rest of the series. The Gophers tried to shorten McCoy’s game by attacking, getting good contact and causing long at-bats.
The long at-bats played their part in McCoy’s 109 pitches. He got through seven total innings, where he finished the game with five strikeouts and only one walk. Despite allowing a career-high 10 hits, he held the Gophers to only two runs, both of which were earned.
He was also largely responsible for stranding seven Gopher batters in the first seven innings.
“I definitely don’t think that was my A+ stuff today, but making sure to get weak contact, just kind of letting my defense do the work,” said McCoy, “I just tried to go out there and pitch as deep into the game as I can.”
“We treat these games like game seven now with the season coming to the end, so I just wanted to empty the tank for the team.”
“It’s tremendous, he’s just been so consistent all year, really hasn’t had any really bad outings,” said Swope on McCoy’s outing, “its a table setter, I mean if you look back at the Fridays we should be in a different position then where we’re in right now and that’s because of him.”
Junior Brayden Martin and sophomore Chris Hacopian, the Terps’ number one and two in the lineup, created the offense for the Terps at the beginning of the game.
Martin singled in his first two at-bats, and Chris Hacopian brought him home in the first inning with a home run, and then brought him to third base in the third inning after a double. Martin would later score from an RBI groundout by Hollis Porter.
“His numbers have been really good all year. I think it’s more that he’s finally getting that little bit of extra slug, like he’s starting to drive the ball a little bit better, getting on time. I think he’s finally hitting his stride a little bit where he feels good,” said Swope, “if he’s slugging a little bit, it’s going to make us tough to beat down the stretch.”
Junior Joe Sperry makes the start on the mound for the Gophers. Sperry has taken over the Friday duties for the last three series, where he has allowed 9 earned runs in 14.2 innings
pitched.
Sperry targeted the strike zone, attempting to get ahead of the Terps’ batters. He did so successfully after the two runs he allowed in the first inning.
He ended the game with six strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched while allowing seven hits and six earned runs, and also being responsible for three 1-2-3 innings.
The Terps had a hard time getting on following the first inning, only having two hits and one run in the following four innings.
That would change as Porter came up to bat in the sixth inning and hit a lead-off solo home run. That was Porter’s 21st home run of the season, which would be tied for the second most in Division I baseball.
The Terps would score four more runs in the sixth inning.
It was a heartwarming moment as Jones II hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning. He said after the game, “That was just great for me to be able to do that, having all of my family, it was my mom’s birthday, so being able to give her that for like a birthday present, it was really cool.”
Senior Ryan Van Buren would come into the game for the Terps following McCoy’s seven innings and would close the game out for the Terps without letting up a run.
The Terps will now look to tomorrow at 4 p.m., where they have a chance to win their second straight series.
