Maryland men’s baseball faltered in its series opener against Purdue on Friday, ultimately losing 10-8 in a wild three and a half hour weekend debut. The two teams combined for 27 hits as the Terps very nearly came back from being down 8-2, and both teams’ night-long gripes with the umpire crew culminated in Maryland coach Rob Vaughn getting himself tossed in the eighth.

The normally dynamic Maryland lineup limped out to a sluggish start, allowing a towering Boilermakers lead to build before the home team worked its way back into the fight. Purdue starter Kyle Stephen held the Terps firmly in check through six dominant innings, but reliever Aaron Suval allowed them to bring the score within a run before the Maryland bullpen once again struggled in tight spots.

Jason Savacool failed to secure a Big Ten win for the first time after taking home a win over his last three Fridays. He didn’t get much run support over his tenure on the mound, but the Terps fought until their final out. 

“We had some opportunities early with two outs, we weren’t really able to cash in,” Vaughn said. “I thought we did some good things there, we just couldn’t quite finish. We fought like heck.”

The Terps entered the weekend with momentum after laying down the law in both of their midweek matchups. This is a team who dropped multiple consecutive Tuesday games before playing two this last week, but the Terps snapped with high-scoring victories. They first met George Washington in a 15-8 rout on Tuesday, and then handled James Madison 19-12 the very next day.

Purdue, similarly enough, waltzed into the weekend on the back of four straight wins. The Boilermakers have also won three straight Big Ten series, just like the hometown Terps, and neither of the two teams have yet to complete the satisfying sweep when presented with the opportunities.

Though the Boilermakers struck first, it wasn’t without the help of some poor Maryland fielding. Starter Savacool loaded the bases in the second thanks in large part to errors by Kevin Keister and Matt Shaw, and a run scored on a fielder’s choice before the Terps could put out the fire. Bobby Zmarzlak came right back a few minutes later with a solo homer to draw even, and the rest of the lineup worked the Purdue starter before stranding all three runners. 

Mike Bolton Jr. put the pressure right back on the home team, drilling a deep home run to kick off the third inning. Jake Parr drove in a third Purdue run to extend the lead, and this is where the score remained for several innings. Savacool salvaged some of his evening with two scoreless innings with his pitch count working against him, even loading the bases to start the fifth frame before alleviating the scoring threats. 

Both pitchers dealt at similar paces, each entering the sixth inning having tossed between 80 and 90 pitches. Savacool’s fatal errors arrived in the middle of the inning when he allowed a two-run RBI off the bat of CJ Valdez, and then another hit to Evan Albrecht to end his day. The Boilermakers didn’t let off reliever Logan Ott easily, stacking up two more runs to complete a crucial four-run sixth frame to move the score to a daunting 7-1.

Eddie Hacopian hammered a long home run to cut the deficit to five, but starter Stephen fully outlasted Savacool by striking out the side to keep the Terps pinned down. Ryan van Buren replaced Ott on the mound before giving up yet another two-out RBI, the fourth of the game for Purdue to improve to 8-2.

The Terps looked dead in the water entering the seventh, having only mustered five hits and two runs in the six innings prior. They patched together an extremely timely five-run seventh frame thanks to Shaw for walking and the five batters who managed a hit to keep the rally going. The tight score was short lived, though, as David Falco Jr. allowed two more Purdue runs in the eighth. Petrutz drove in one more run, but it wasn’t quite enough to seize a come-from-behind win.

“[These kids] can take a punch,” Vaughn said. “We ended up scoring five to bring it within one, had some tough at bats, that’s what you want to see, but ultimately we still were two runs short.”

The game didn’t conclude without controversy. Nick Lorusso was called out by the first base umpire in the eighth inning, and Rob Vaughn let the crew chief have it before being tossed. Vaughn made sure to exit at a leisurely pace, opting to stroll along the third base line to get his money’s worth.

“Kind of a gut punch right there,” Vaughn said. “That’s kind of a culmination of some calls throughout the game. I could be wrong about some of those, but that call didn’t lose us the game. Was it a blow to momentum? Sure. But that’s baseball, just kind of an emotional moment.”

Maryland will get another crack at Purdue tomorrow., where the team will look to avoid their first potential sweep by a Big Ten opponent.