Blowout wins have been an irregularity for Maryland baseball this entire season. In the Terps demolition of Richmond, head coach Matt Swope tried something that he had not done all season.
Lance Williams has been Maryland’s Friday night starter all season.
But en route to a 19-4 victory over Richmond, Swope went to his Friday starter up by 13 in the sixth inning.
A confusing decision that appeared to be about building confidence after a rough outing in his previous start, but on Tuesday it paid off.
Williams pitched one inning, threw nine pitches and faced the minimum.
“It was his idea, he wanted to feel it out on the mound and bounce back from Friday and get comfortable getting pitches in the zone,” Swope said.
Logan Hastings went in for the seventh as the Terps cruised to a run-rule victory.
Coming off a gauntlet of a schedule, the Terps got their chance at revenge against Richmond. For the first time this season, the Terps managed to score in every inning.
Brayden Martin was spectacular at the plate for the Terps, going 3 for 3 with a double mixed in with a perfectly placed bunt.
The Terps fell to the Spiders 7-5 on March 17th, in a game where they could never get the big hit to break the game open.
“I thought we were just way more aggressive [this game],” Martin said. “Last game we didn’t come out and put the pressure on them and today we did that and it won us the game.”
The beauty of baseball was on display on a gorgeous day in College Park as the Terp offense exploded for 19 runs in only six innings.
The Terps offense diversified the way it scored runs. It included home runs, walks, base hits and taking advantage of some “freebies” given to them by Richmond.
“I was extremely happy with the offensive effort,” Swope said. “If you go back to the at bats against UCLA and USC our process was good and when you have a good process you get better results.”
Jackson Sirois homered twice in the game, giving him three home runs in the last three games for the Terps.
Paul Jones II crushed a home run 430 feet over the center field wall in a no-doubt style with an exit velocity of 110 miles per hour.
“We felt we were playing good baseball. Playing the best of the best, we felt like some things didn’t go our way.” Martin said. “ When we play like this, we think we can go really far and make a run.”
Swope has been waiting for the Terp offense to start posting crooked numbers, and they responded with five different multi-run innings.
On the pitching front, Nic Morlang took the rubber for the Terps and allowed three runs in the first two innings before Andrew Koshy took over.
Koshy plunked two batters to allow a run that wasn’t earned, but the Terps’ lead was large enough for that to make a dent.
The little things clicked for the Terps, allowing them to have their biggest offensive explosion of the season and build momentum as the schedule eases the rest of the season.
