With Maryland baseball and Minnesota in a seven-run deadlock, Nate Haberthier toed the rubber searching for the final out in the fifth inning against Kris Hokenson.
Hokenson won the battle, smoking a belt-high fastball on the second pitch of the at-bat 311 feet for a two-run homer, giving the Golden Gophers (15-31, 8-11 B1G) a lead they would never relinquish in a 10-7 victory over the Terps (33-18, 13-6 B1G).
All of the Minnesota bats shined Friday night, with eight batters recording a hit and four different Golden Gophers going yard. The offense that had scored seven or more runs just twice in its last 13 games put up seven in under five frames, and padded that number to pull off the game one win.
“We just got into really bad counts. I mean that’s the reality,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “You look at a lot of those homers, it’s 2-0, 3-1 … and they took good swings on them. They did a good job tonight.”
Maryland started things on the right note, recording two first-inning runs after senior third baseman Nick Lorusso belted a homer over the wall in left field. The blast was measured at a distance of 420 feet with an exit velocity of 103.7 miles per hour.
The Terps’ offense relied heavily on the long ball, with all of their first seven runs coming off homers from Lorusso, junior second baseman Kevin Keister and junior shortstop Matt Shaw.
Keister’s and Shaw’s both came in a five-run fourth inning that put the Terps ahead 7-6. But the lack of alternative run support kept them in a hole for much of the evening, recording just four hits outside of the three homers.
“Just executed really good pitches,” Vaughn said. “Everything’s at the bottom of the zone, they’re throwing back-count breaking balls for called strikes. It felt like we stepped in the box and it was almost 0-2 every time just because they were pounding the strike zone.”
Right-hander Nick Dean got his third consecutive Friday start for the Terps, working a routine first frame before running into some trouble soon after. He allowed the Golden Gophers to load the bases with no outs before nearly working out of the jam with two straight strikeouts. But redshirt senior catcher Riley Swenson made Dean pay, working the count full before clearing the bases with a three-run double, giving his side a 3-2 lead.
Swenson then followed up with more destruction in his next at-bat, homering with two outs for a solo shot in the fourth frame. The Golden Gopher action didn’t stop there, as a bloop and a blast off the bat of junior left fielder Boston Merila put them ahead 6-2.
Swenson entered the game with six home runs and a .202 batting average, the worst among Golden Gophers with at least 100 at-bats. But he shined out of the nine-hole on Friday.
Dean was erratic in his outing, simultaneously appearing to be unhittable and like batting practice for his opponents. The senior struck out five batters in four innings but allowed six two-out RBIs and couldn’t put a bow on lots of innings.
The ball was flipped to Haberthier to start the fifth inning. The junior right-hander recorded the same amount of outs as homers, surrendering three Golden Gopher runs to give them a 9-7 advantage. Minnesota entered the night with 25 homers through 45 games, nearly matching one-fifth of its season-long total in just one night.
Usurping Haberthier was redshirt sophomore right-hander Nigel Belgrave, who turned in a fantastic 2.1 innings of relief. He kept the Gopher lineup at bay but walked the first two batters of the eighth inning, prompting Vaughn to insert his fourth pitcher of the night.
That fourth pitcher was redshirt junior right-hander David Falco Jr., who entered with a two-on, no-out jam. He induced a 6-3 double play on his first pitch before allowing a run to come across on a Brady Counsell double, putting Maryland in a 10-7 hole.
The Terps were unable to respond in the final frame, losing just their second Friday game of Big Ten play.
“They had nine two-out RBIs tonight,” Vaughn said. “That’s how you win games. When you get nine two-out-runs that’s tough to overcome at times.”
