Through many struggles this season for Maryland baseball, allowing big innings has been a particular Achilles heel.

On Friday, it happened again. Indiana scored six runs in a monster sixth inning.

That was all the Hoosiers needed as they cruised to an 11-3 win on Bob “Turtle” Smith remembrance night at the stadium that bears his name.

“We just have to play better,” said head coach Matt Swope. “We just didn’t do enough.”

The Hoosiers came ready to play. They smoked an opposite-field home run on the first pitch of the game and never relinquished the lead. 

Indiana’s bats stayed hot in the second. They put together three straight two-out singles to drive in another run. Solo home runs in the fourth and sixth innings extended its lead

Swope has said Maryland needs to find consistency on Fridays. In hopes of changing that, Evan Smith made his first Friday night start of the season. But it didn’t go the way the Terps wanted. The left-hander gave up six runs in five innings of work. 

“I think his numbers aren’t necessarily indicative of the way he played,” said Swope. “I think he’s been fine.”

But there was some silver lining – Smith went deep into the game. The Terps have been burdened by an overused bullpen all season, so a lengthy Friday start might help the entire weekend. 

Despite the number of runs given up, Maryland needs any sort of consistency it can get, pitching-wise. Smith slotting in as the Friday starter could help. 

Cristofer Cespedes followed Smith and struggled mightily. He immediately allowed a runner to score on a wild pitch before giving up back-to-back home runs, the first of which was a three-run bomb by Caleb Koskie. 

After a string of decent outings, in which he gave up just two runs in 7 1/3  innings, Cespedes has now allowed eight total runs in his last two appearances. 

But the Terps’ bats lost their spark on Friday after scoring a combined 26 runs in two weekday games

Rylen Stockton knocked a no-doubt homer in the second to put the Terps on the board, but otherwise, their bats were nowhere to be found. 

Tony Neubeck started for Indiana and put on a star performance.  The Terps went 1-for-9 with runners on base against Neubeck as he threw six strong innings, giving up just one run while striking out five. 

The Terps offense showed signs of life late. Paul Jones II hit a solo home run, followed by a Jordan Crosland RBI single in the seventh.  Although Maryland mostly struggled at the plate, Crosland had a strong day, going 3-for-5 with an RBI. 

But any sort of offense couldn’t compensate for pitching struggles. 

James Gladden finished up the game for the Terps. He threw 2 2/3 innings and allowed two runs to score.

The Terps will shake things up again on Saturday with usual reliever Logan Hastings taking the mound.

With Maryland’s many pitching struggles, Swope seems to be trying anything to course-correct its rotation. 

But thus far, nothing has worked.