Sam Hojnar’s two home runs lift Maryland to 11-7 win over Illinois

Photo courtesy of Rose Fernandes/Maryland Athletics

After Illinois cut Maryland’s lead to one run in the eighth inning, Sam Hojnar looked to give Maryland some breathing room in the bottom frame. He did just that, flying a two-out pitch that hit off the top of the center field wall for his second home run of the afternoon and recapturing Maryland’s four-run lead.

“I knew I was gonna have a chance to drive in some runs and give us some space with two outs,” Hojnar said on his approach. “I kinda knew a fastball was coming, and he gave me an elevated fastball.”

Maryland used the late-inning blast to hand Illinois its first Big Ten series loss and take Sunday’s game 11-7 in College Park.

The series win prevented Maryland baseball (28-17, 8-10 Big Ten) from dropping its fifth consecutive Big Ten conference series — something that had not been done since joining the Big Ten. This also marks the Terps’ first Big Ten series win since Mar. 24 against Michigan State

Illinois (25-15, 11-4 Big Ten) went with Jake Rons to start Sunday’s game, who pitched Saturday but threw just six pitches. The Terps used their familiarity with Rons to attack him early in counts and jump out to a big early lead.

The Terps opened Saturday’s game with a four-run first inning and jumped out to another fast start on Sunday. Chris Hacopian’s 11th home run temporarily gave him the team lead in home runs and jump-started the Maryland offense. Back-to-back doubles from Hojnar and Brayden Martin gave the Terps a 2-0 lead.

Maryland continued to expand its lead in the third inning and appeared to blow the game wide open. Hojnar didn’t let Hacopian keep the home run title for long, ripping a line drive over the right field fence. Then, a pair of base hits off soft contact from Devin Russell and Eddie Hacopian put up a four-run inning and gave the Terps a 7-1 lead.

Hojnar played a key part in Maryland’s offense all game, finishing the day with three extra-base hits and bringing home four RBIs.

“He’s [been] red hot the last month and a half,” coach Matt Swope said. “I think he kind of started slow, but you’re seeing everything kind of tick up right now.”

Joey McMannis allowed minimal damage the first time through the batting order, but the middle innings hurt him. The freshman allowed three of his four earned runs in the middle frames.

“They weren’t hitting the two-seam [fastball] at all,” Swope said. “I got on [McMannis] about swiping a couple of breaking balls that they ended up hitting when he was pounding that two-seam, and they kept pounding it in the ground.”

Freshman Evan Smith relieved McMannis after the fifth inning. He had trouble consistently locating the ball and loaded the bases in all three innings pitched but was able to get out of the jams in two of his three innings pitched.

But similar to Saturday’s game, one swing of the bat brought Illinois back into the game. An RBI base hit from Coltin Quagliano cut Maryland’s lead in half in the second inning.

Despite being down by six runs entering the middle innings, the Fighting Illini continued to chip away at Maryland’s lead. 

Solo home runs in consecutive innings from Vytas Valincius and Connor Milton cut the lead to 7-3.

Valincius nearly single-handedly carried the Illini offense, going 3-for-4 at the plate with a home run and five RBIs.

The junior continued to terrorize the Maryland pitching staff, smoking a two-out double into the right-center field gap that cleared the bases and cut the lead to one.

Despite Valincius’s efforts, the Terps’ big eighth inning and Logan Berrier’s second save in as many days secured the series win. 

Next, Maryland is back on the road to face Towson on Tuesday at 3 p.m.