Photo courtesy of Allison Mize/Maryland Terrapins
In the top of the eighth with a runner on first and the game tied at two, junior catcher Derek Paris came up to the plate and in a 1-1 count, he hit a high line drive hooking down the third base line. The ball hit the foul post, and the Maryland Terrapins (14-15) went down 4-2.
The UMBC Retrievers (9-13) would be able to hold onto their lead and win the game 5-2. The Terps suffered one of their worst losses of the season in their midweek game on Tuesday in College Park.
Redshirt sophomore Brayden Ryan took the start on the mound for the Terps. Just the second start of the season for Ryan, who started last week’s midweek game against George Mason.
He exited the George Mason game after allowing three runs on four hits while only getting two outs. Ryan hasn’t had a good 2025 campaign so far with a team-low 17.55 ERA in his 6.2 innings pitched.
Ryan hit the first two batters in his first four pitches but was able to steady it out for the rest of his outing. He pitched for three innings and allowed one run. The sophomore pounded the strike zone and got ahead of batters, but allowed some contact in the middle, which turned into three hits, including an RBI single by redshirt sophomore Leewood Molessa in the third inning.
“He was a little bit better, he was more consistent today, and again, when you just have some success like this in an outing, then you really try and build on it, and hopefully he can get a little bit more consistent as we go on,” head coach Matt Swope said.
Freshman pitcher Sergio Droz started for the Retrievers on the flip side. Droz has moved around the pitching staff for the Retrievers, making both weekend starts and a midweek start.
Tuesday was Droz’s first action since March 15th, when he pitched against UMass Lowell, where he allowed four runs in two innings pitched.
Droz ended his day only pitching two scoreless innings. The Retrievers used a total of six pitchers in their effort despite only allowing two runs.
Senior Elijah Lambros found the only runs for the Terps after hitting a two-run home run over the left field wall in the fourth inning. That was just his second home run of the season.
Redshirt sophomore James Gladden made his first appearance on the mound for the Terps. He underwent Tommy John surgery and sat the entirety of last season after transferring from VCU.
Gladden struck out his first batter in four pitches and ended his one inning pitched with one run allowed off of a sophomore Kyle Eddington RBI single.
“Glad he got back out there, it’s tough when you go through an injury like that and you’re out for so long,” Swope said, “hopefully he can continue to get better and we’ll need him at some point again in the back end moving forward.”
Freshman Cristofer Cespedes came into the game in the seventh inning and pitched a nearly flawless inning, collecting three outs, including a strikeout, in eight pitches.
Cespedes came back out for the eighth inning and allowed the eventual game-winning two-run home run. Cespedes suffered his first loss of his collegiate career.
Despite the 22 runs against Northwestern on Sunday, the Terps were unable to get going on the offensive end, only scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth.
“I’m not really worried about the consistency at all, that’s the only thing that has been consistent all year,” Swope said, “you’re going to have days like this today in baseball, if you looked throughout the year, you’re probably going to have a few of those.”
Swope added how in games like these you need to be able to string them along and “will yourself to win one way or another.” He cited the first inning when they had their bases loaded but couldn’t convert a run as well as the third, fifth, and seventh innings where they had lead-off runners who were stranded.
A recurring theme of the season for the Terps is that when their offense is struggling, they are leaving runners on base. That is exactly what happened on Tuesday. The Terps left five batters on base in just the first three innings, and ended the game with ten runners left on base.
Graduate student Jack Wren had the best outing for all the Terps pitchers, ending with two scoreless innings and two strikeouts.
The Terps suffered their second straight loss to UMBC after their 4-2 loss last year and only their fourth loss since 1999.
The Terps will now look toward their weekend series at Illinois.
