Kevin Keister stood in the right handed batter’s box with the bases loaded and one out. Indiana stayed with a five man infield hoping to cut off any holes a ground ball could find its way through following Sam Hojnar’s strike out. Keister swung at the first pitch from reliever Brayden Risedorph and hit a ground ball up the middle too fast for the Indiana defense to stop.
“I was kind of expecting a offspeed pitch, got a slider, hit it decently hard but when I first hit it I was like oh no I hit it on the ground with five infielders but it snuck through, so happy it snuck through,” said Keister.
Keister’s walk-off RBI single gave Maryland (22-10, 4-5 Big Ten) its first win of the weekend, 6-5, against the Indiana Hoosiers (18-15, 3-3 Big Ten) avoiding a weekend series sweep.
“The guys found a way and again I talk about sweeps and not getting swept is about team character, it’s about the camaraderie and I feel like again you guys just kinda saw that no matter whether we were up or down the guys battled back,” said head coach Matt Swope.
The win was Maryland’s 13th comeback win of the season and its fourth walk-off win. Maryland is 9-1 in one run games this year living true to the “Cardiac Terps” persona they’ve adopted.
Keister’s single was Maryland’s tenth hit of the game just a day after the Terps managed just four hits. The Terps offense bounced back in a big way with three extra base hits and was led by Freshman Chris Hacopian who went four for four with a double. That double came in the ninth inning to help create the bases loaded situation.
Maryland’s offense got off to a hot start with four of the first five Maryland hitters reaching base in the first inning. Maryland didn’t score a single run in the first though, due to poor baserunning, making two of its three outs on the base paths. The Terps didn’t score their first runs until the third inning and they required some help from the Indiana defense.
Keister sent a line drive to right field with runners occupying second and third and Indiana right fielder, Nick Mitchell, broke in to catch the line drive. As he lifted his glove to catch the ball, the line drive rolled off his leather. The error in right field gave the Terps a two-run lead, their first lead since the first inning in Friday’s game.
Maryland scored three in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game after Indiana took the lead in the top half. The Terps patience at the plate was a key factor in the comeback, getting back-to-back RBI free passes from freshmen Brayden Martin and Chris Hacopian.
Maryland’s pitching received a boost from starter Joey McMannis after a couple of rough starts for the Terps this weekend. McMannis held the Hoosiers scoreless through the first three innings and only gave up one run in the fourth on a Devin Taylor solo homer. McMannis was rolling for most of his outing until the sixth inning.
The sixth started with a Carter Mathison walk and steal, putting the Hoosier center fielder on second. McMannis walked Taylor after retiring Jasen Oliver via a groundout putting runners at the corners with one out. The next batter, Tyler Cerny, tapped the ball back to McMannis on the mound. The Freshman right-hander fielded the ball cleanly and fired to first. The throw went out of the reach of Eddie Hacopian at first and that error allowed the Hoosiers to score two and take the lead.
The inning got worse for McMannis and the Terps as McMannis walked Mitchell and allowed runners to advance into scoring position on a groundout from Joey Brenczewski. That set the stage for Jake Stadler to come through for Indiana, lining a ball up the middle that plated Indiana’s third and fourth runs of the inning.
Despite McMannis’ outing ending in disappointing fashion it was a strong start for Maryland’s youngest rotation option. McMannis pitched five and two thirds innings allowing three hits and five runs, although only one of those runs were earned. McMannis walked four batters, three of them coming in the sixth.
Logan Berrier replaced McMannis and provided the Terps with their best bullpen appearance of the weekend. Berrier pitched three and a third innings without giving up a single hit or run. Berrier’s dominance allowed the Maryland offense, and Keister, to be the heroes in the bottom of the ninth.
“[Berrier] kept us in the game,” said Swope. “They didn’t even really do anything when he was in there. He shut them down pretty good.”
The win caps off a .500 week of baseball for Maryland after winning its mid-week game against UMBC. Maryland will see the Retrievers again on Wednesday as one of two mid-week games this week. The other is against Georgetown on Tuesday.
