The Terps knocked home five runs in the eighth inning.
After some early fireworks, things settled down in the middle innings. Headed into the eighth inning, Maryland baseball and Towson were knotted at eight runs apiece.
Brandon Jung faced the first three Maryland hitters. Then, Towson head coach Matt Tyner turned to Kyle Emmons in the pen to face the red hot Sam Hojnar with two on base. Hojnar won the battle, slapping an RBI single to reclaim Maryland’s lead.
The Terps’ eighth inning didn’t end there. They proceeded to add four more insurance runs with two outs in the frame. Jacob Orr brought in Chris Hacopian with an RBI single and Hojnar walked home on a balk. Freshman Michael Iannazzo also sparked some magic with a two-run single.
Maryland ultimately held on to the lead, defeating Towson in its only matchup of the season, 13-8, on Tuesday.
“We won, I mean, it’s as simple as that, I was trying to be as positive as I could,” head coach Matt Swope said. “I thought that the offense was relentless.”
Ryan Van Buren started the midweek match on his birthday, a present from Swope. Van Buren was Maryland’s midweek starter for the first eight weeks of the season, but he did not receive starts the past two weeks. Tuesday was his chance to make a statement.
Hojnar continued his hot streak, knocking a solo home run in the top of the first. But Van Buren quickly lost the lead when Jordan Peyton tied the game with a solo shot. Maryland recaptured the lead in the second when Elijah Lambros drove in Kevin Keister with an RBI groundout.
The bottom of the second wasn’t too pleasant for Van Buren. He gave up a two-run triple to Devan Barnett and an RBI bloop single to Jeremy Wagner, gifting Towson a two-run lead. Swope immediately ended Van Buren’s tenure on the mound, pulling him after only 1 ⅓ innings. The right-hander gave up five earned runs on six hits.
Nate Haberthier came in relief of Van Buren, but Towson continued its big inning. Wagner scored on a wild pitch, Peyton hit his second solo home run of the day and Bryce Frederick scored on an Orr error to give Towson a 7-2 lead.
Maryland quickly regained the game’s momentum in the top of the third, though. Hacopian and Hojnar started the inning with back-to-back jacks. Then, a sacrifice fly by Iannazzo brought in Maryland’s fifth run, and Devin Russell tied the game with a two-run home run to left field, putting a ribbon on Maryland’s third inning.
“I thought that pretty much was the game right there in the third, being able to kind of come all the way back in one inning,” Swope said. “Normally, you’re just trying to claw back a little bit in it, but we were able to score five there in the third. I thought that was a huge momentum shift.”
The scoring outburst took a halt through the next three innings. After the second, Haberthier pitched three scoreless frames. He pitched 3 ⅔ innings and gave up six hits and two runs, but did not record a strikeout.
Maryland seized the lead in the top of the fifth inning, as Iannazzo tripled and Russell brought him in with an RBI groundout.
Andrew Johnson took the ball in the sixth inning and worked a scoreless frame, but Towson tied the game in the seventh inning when the left-hander gave up a solo home run to Chris Akers.
Johnson finished the seventh, worked a scoreless eighth and closed the contest with a scoreless ninth inning, earning the win in four innings of work. He gave up two hits, one earned run and three walks, while striking out two.
“Being able to kind of get some more out of some more guys in the pen has been great,” Hojnar said. “Nate [Haberthier] and [Andrew Johnson] had been battling all year long…it was nice to see them kind of both get to put it together at the same time and help us win the ballgame today.”
Three things to know
1. Hojnar stays red hot. For the second straight game, Hojnar had a multiple home runs. He has racked up five home runs in the past four games. The infielder also drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth that sparked a five-run inning for Maryland’s offense.
“I’m just trying to find something elevated first at bat, got a slider up, a little higher in the zone,” Hojnar said. “I was a little out in front, but got enough on it to hook it around the foul line.”
2. Have a day, Michael Iannazzo. The freshman had a very impressive Tuesday at Towson, finishing with three hits, three RBIs and was just a home run shy of the cycle.
3. Big innings lead the way. Maryland’s offense put up five runs in both the third and eighth innings. The former brought Maryland back from a five-run deficit. The latter broke an 8-8 tie in the eighth and added four runs of insurance.