Maryland baseball’s offense has been a huge strength this season and has bailed out some poor pitching performances.
Sunday against Purdue was another instance of that.
But the Terps were down by five runs through four innings, and it looked like they would be swept handily by Purdue.
But using home runs, small ball, and stolen bases to score runs, the Terps overcame their early deficit to beat Purdue 9-8.
“I was really proud of it, being down five, nothing after the fifth, every swing seems like it’s a homer for them,” head coach Matt Swope said. “It shows a lot about them that you can quit in those situations. And those guys were gritty and came back.”
Maryland battled back twice in the game as they looked to avoid the sweep against Purdue, coming back from five- and two-run deficits, but it ultimately appeared it wouldn’t be enough.
The Terps took their first lead in the sixth inning but gave it right back to Purdue. Ryan Bailey and Cristofer Cespedes allowed three runs to the Boilermakers. But the Terps tied the score in the 7th with two runs.
After dropping the first two games of the series, Swope made some significant changes to the lineup. Jordan Crosland led off for the first time in his career, Rylen Stockton caught for the third time in three days and Nate Hawton-Henley made his first career start.
Despite the changes, the Terps had zero stolen bases in any game of this series, while Purdue was electric on the basepaths. With the Terps down in the eighth inning, Crosland swiped second base and came around to score on a fielder’s choice to tie the score.
The stolen base opened the floodgates in the inning, when Ty Kaunas dove headfirst into first to beat the throw and score Ryan Costello and give the Terps the lead.
“I ran down the line, and I just tried to hustle and get there a different way,” Kaunas said. “I saw them, and I was like, I need to dive headfirst. Just try to get in there quicker, and I got there.”
In a moment of desperation, Swope turned to his shutdown reliever Logan Hastings, who shut the door on Purdue and gave the Terps their first conference win of the year.
“He’s our guy [and] is going to be our guy the entire season,” Swope said. He’s been lights out the entire season.”
It was these lineup changes that seemingly turned the game around for the Terps.
After an ugly first four innings with only two hits, it was Crosland who gave Maryland a shot in the arm with a two-run shot over the center field wall.
The comeback mounted in the sixth as another Swope change paid off. With the bases loaded, Hawton-Henley singled up the middle, scoring two runs to put Maryland ahead. Crosland stepped back up and beat out an errant throw by the Purdue shortstop to tie the score.
Despite a heroic comeback from the offense, the bullpen immediately imploded as they gave the lead right back to Purdue’s leadoff man, Ali Banks, on a solo shot.
Paul Jones II, back in the lineup after sitting out game 2, had the game-tying RBI double and made a phenomenal grab at first base to complete a double play.
The up-and-down nature of Maryland baseball’s season was exemplified on Sunday, and it found a way to avoid a sweep to start Big Ten play.
