Devin Russell stood at the plate with the bases empty and a new pitcher taking the bump. Eight Maryland runs already crossed the plate in the top of the second, but Russell would make it nine.
Russell blasted a pitch from Rob Dorn over the tall fence in center. With the swing, Russell completed a pair of firsts for his collegiate career, earning his first collegiate hit and home run.
“He’s gonna hit a lot of homers here,” said head coach Rob Vaughn. “He’s got thunder in his bat.”
Russell’s first collegiate hit was one of nine hits for Maryland in the top of the second, which they scored a program-record 17 runs in the inning.
“That second inning was about as good of an inning as you could possibly have,” said Vaughn. “So, really impressed the way we swung the bats.”
The record inning powered the Terps past UMBC, 24-11.
The Dirty Terps came into the Tuesday game after winning their weekend series against Purdue on Sunday. Maryland played eleven innings on Sunday due to a day-long rain delay from the second game of the series. UMBC came into this midweek game winners of four-straight. The Retrievers swept their weekend series against UMass Lowell and won their last midweek against Maryland Eastern Shore.
Nate Haberthier got the starting assignment for Maryland, his seventh start of the season. Haberthier came in with an ERA of 7.67 and WHIP of 1.88. In his last start against George Washington, Haberthier pitched three and a third innings allowing four earned runs on eight hits.
The Terps wasted no time getting the bats working, providing an early lead for their starter. All nine Maryland hitters went to the plate in the first inning, racking up four hits and three runs. The first three hits of the inning came from Maryland’s first three batters.
Luke Shliger started the game with a single and Matt Shaw followed him with a double. Ian Petrutz brought them home with an RBI single to right center, giving the Terps an early lead. Jacob Orr drove in Petrutz for the third run, capping off the top of the first.
Haberthier allowed UMBC to get two of the runs back in the bottom half of the inning. The Retrievers’ first two batters of the inning reached base safely and a wild pitch allowed them to advance into scoring position. Both runners crossed the plate, scoring on back-to-back groundouts by Justin Taylor and Leewood Molessa, ending the first with Maryland grasping to a 3-2 lead.
The Terps were held scoreless in the next two frames after their impressive second inning, until Eddie Hacopian broke the scoreless streak hitting an RBI single through the left side of the infield in the top of the fifth. Elijah Lambros delivered two more runs with a double to left field increasing Maryland’s lead, 23-2.
The Retrievers responded by putting up four runs in the bottom half all off of Haberthier. Joey Colucci came on to get the final out of the inning, ending Haberthier’s outing. Haberthier pitched well, throwing four and two thirds innings allowing six earned runs on six hits.
“The one thing that was huge that Nate did is, I mean, every pitcher likes having a cushion to pitch with but sitting in the dugout when we hit through the lineup twice and score seventeen it’s hard to come back out and hang zeros and he hung three straight zeros up for us,” said Vaughn.
UMBC plated five more in the bottom of the sixth, cutting the Maryland lead to 24-11. That would end the scoring as the two teams went scoreless in the seventh, ending the game after the seventh inning was completed.
Maryland was powered by the offense in this midweek game and in total they used four pitchers to complete the seven-inning victory. Maryland will play a second midweek game on Wednesday against Georgetown.
