By Ethan Cadeaux (@Ethan_301)

Behind a dominant performance from starting pitcher Tayler Stiles, the Terps won the first of a home-and-home over Virginia Commonwealth, 8-1, and captured their second straight midweek win.

Stiles went seven innings strong, allowing no runs and just seven hits in the best start of his season.

“No matter what anybody thinks, even after putting eight runs on the board, your team works off its starting pitching,” said manager John Szefc. “If you get a good start you get a good chance to win, if you get a bad start, you don’t [have a good chance to win].”

After two disappointing outings to start the season, Szefc decided to stick with Stiles and gave him his third start. Stiles responded with one of his best outings in a Maryland uniform.

“It’s about time,” said Stiles on turning in his best start of the season. “I just made some adjustments during my bullpen and it worked out today. Baseball is a mental game. You just [have to] figure it out. After every bad outing, I just contemplated it, then kind of flushed it and worked on what I needed to work on. I stayed confident and did my thing [today].”

Stiles credited moving from the left side of the rubber to the right as one of the adjustments he made that worked well. By doing this, he was able to pound the fastball inside to righties and keep hitters off balance.

After scoring just a combined six runs during this past weekend’s series in Iowa, the Terps’ offense made an immediate impact Tuesday, as they plated eight runs in the first four innings. Every starter recorded at least one hit.

“We are just trying to have quality at bats up and down the lineup,” said Terps’ center fielder Anthony Papio. “When we have been able to string good at bats together in an inning, we have a good offensive game.”

The Terps didn’t take long to start scoring. After crossing one in the first, the Terps has a five-run, six-hit second inning to break the game wide open.

Anthony Papio started the second off with a walk, and then designated hitter Dan Maynard, who was making just his fourth start all season, singled to left. The two of them successfully double stole, and then third baseman Andrew Bechtold would single to score Papio. Two batters later, shortstop Kevin Smith would single in Maynard, giving the Terps a 4-0 lead.

After second baseman Nick Dunn laced an RBI double to the left-center gap, catcher Nick Cieri followed with a two-run single to extend the Terps’ lead to six.

“Oh it’s huge,” said Stiles on the Terps’ early lead. “Pitching with a lead is awesome. Even the one run in the first inning was great. You’re just more relaxed when you go out there with a lead.”

The Terps would chase VCU starter Jack Alkire after just one and two thirds innings pitched. Alkire would only face 14 batters, but allow eight of them hits, resulting in five earned runs.

In the fourth, Papio would stroke a triple off the right field wall, plating Nick Dunn and Kevin Biondic. After four, the Terps were up 8-0.

Smith, who was moved out of the leadoff spot and into the two-hole for the first time since the early part of the season, responded by going 2-4 with an RBI. Dunn continued his scorching hot start to the season, finishing 3-5 with two doubles. Papio went 2-2 with a triple and two walks.

As for flip-flopping Smith with right fielder Madison Nickens in the lineup, Szefc said, “Going into today, [Smith] had our lowest on base percentage of our starting position players. Traditionally, you would not have the guy with the lowest on base percentage be the leadoff.”

Szefc also mentioned that Smith hit in the two-hole most of last year, and knew he would be comfortable hitting in that spot if Szefc were to make the change.

The Terps offense would not muster much after the fourth inning, but the eight early runs were more than enough to propel them to victory, especially with the starting pitching the Terps’ received today.

Terps’ relief pitcher John Murphy would allow VCU their first run of the game in the eighth, but would limit the damage by striking out third baseman Mitchel Lacey to end the inning, leaving two runners stranded.

Freshman Zach Guth would close the ninth inning out in short order, bringing the Terps back to .500 on the season.

Maryland is back in action tomorrow night in Richmond, as VCU will look to even the series. First pitch is at 6:30 p.m.