Maryland baseball has often struggled with slow starts this year. 

The issues have been particularly relevant during the pitching half of the first inning.

That trend looked to continue as Indiana took a three-run lead in the first inning. 

However, the Terps bounced back and arguably played their best offensive game of the season in a 14-4 mercy rule win to even the series.

Normal closer Logan Hastings got the ball to start for the Terps. After a rocky first inning, Hastings was serviceable and got timely outs, as he let up only four runs in the outing. 

“He and I had a heart-to-heart in the airport last Sunday. He wanted to come out and have more meaningful innings and make a statement,” head coach Matt Swope said.

Maryland has looked for length out of its starters all season. Prior to Saturday, a starter hadn’t made it past the sixth inning. 

Hastings went deep into the contest and finished with a dominant seven innings pitched, allowing only six hits and four runs. He also mixed in five strikeouts on his way to a 98-pitch outing.

“Nobody likes to give up three in the first,” Hastings said. “I knew my stuff felt good. They weren’t all over me. It felt a little weird, it was nice to throw more than like five pitches.”

When asked if Hastings would stay in the rotation, Swope had a very simple answer. “Yes,” he said with a grin on his face.

It was a complete game from the Terps offensively, as they put up three multi-score innings, including two innings of five or more runs.

Maryland had 14 runs on 14 hits and every single starter reached base safely at least once in the game. 

Much of the talk of the season for Head Coach Matt Swope has been about “freebies” as in walks, hit-by-pitches and errors. On Saturday afternoon, the Terps walked ten times to the Hoosiers’ one.

“It’s nice to see. The way we overcome a big inning is by limiting freebies and making them earn it. The freebies are a huge thing,” Swope said.

Maryland had three bunts laid down successfully and squared up multiple times in the game. They scored their first 13 runs without a home run, besides a mercy rule walk-off home run in the seventh inning by Devin Russell. The Terps hit over .450 with runners on base and over .400 with runners in scoring position. 

“I make most of the calls,” Swope said. “It’s not because they can’t hit. If they are not going to respect it, you gotta take what the game gives you. I’m a big fan of the bunt for sure.” 

They also had eight extra base hits and had four two-out RBI’s.

Despite two defensive errors, the Terps made up for them by turning three double plays and allowing no errors to result in runs.

This offensive explosion proved the young Terps’ ability on their best day.