Maryland baseball split a doubleheader against UNC Wilmington on Saturday after winning the series opener.

The Terps lost the first game on Saturday to the Seahawks, 8-4, then bounced back in the second half to win, 5-1. 

In the first game, true freshman Nic Morlang took the ball and pitched a scoreless two innings with four strikeouts. UNCW broke the deadlock in the 3rd and Morlang’s collegiate debut ended with 3 solid innings.  

As the Terps went to the bullpen, UNCW began to get the bats going.  UNCW was able to tack on two runs in the fourth and three big runs in the fifth off an RBI single and two 2-out doubles for UNCW as they took a 6-0 lead into the 6th.

The Terps bats were not on as they were on Friday’s opener. They struggled to get anything going outside of a big sixth inning headlined by a three-run home run by Ryan Costello (1-4, HR, # RBI)  to right field to make it 6-4.  It was too little too late as UNCW tapped on two more runs for insurance to seal an 8-4 victory. 

In the second matchup, the Terps again gave up the lead early, with an RBI single coming UNCW’s way in the bottom of the first. Jake Yeager was on the mound for the Terps and was able to settle in easily after the run, forcing a double play to get out of the inning. Yeager went on to pitch four innings of one-run ball with two punchouts mixed in.  

The Terps were able to tie the score in the fourth inning with Jackson Sirios getting his first Maryland hit with an RBI double in the top of the fourth. 

UNCW looked to strike right back with a man on second and a single went to left field. LF Brayden Martin gunned the runner down at the plate to keep the game tied. The Terps then took the lead in the top of the fifth with Ryan Costello batting in his fifth run of the series to give them a 2-1 lead. 

They then took insurance in the 8th on a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded from Antonio Morales. In the top of the ninth, they added on two more runs with a single, a walk and two RBI singles from Ryan Stockton and Antonio Morales, respectively. 

Logan Hastlings came in to pitch in relief and delivered four innings of dominant shutout ball and was trusted to shut it down by Coach Matt Swope. He delivered and finished with 5 innings pitched and 4 punchouts to get the win in relief.

 The Terps took the series and now head back to College Park for a date with the Georgetown Hoyas on Feb. 16th.