Devin Russell watched as the ball he just hit sailed toward the left field foul pole. The ball curved about 20 feet from the pole landing in foul territory and causing Russell to head back to the plate. A couple of pitches later Russell looked up again, this time paying witness to a go-ahead two-run home run.

“It’s never a good feeling when you hit a foul ball home run because you feel really good seeing it go and then it’s just a long strike and then usually in baseball when you hit a foul ball home run you don’t hit a home run in the same at-bat,” Russell said postgame. “Yeah I got lucky and I got a good pitch to hit.”

Maryland (27-17, 7-10 Big Ten) scored eight runs in the first three innings to help beat Illinois (25-14, 11-3 Big Ten) in the second game of the weekend series, 9-8.  

Russell’s fifth home run of the season put Maryland ahead, 7-5, after the Illini tied the game in the top of the third. Russell finished the game batting one for four with the two RBIs and registering one of Maryland’s seven hits with two outs.

The Terps two-out hitting was a common occurrence in the first third of the game. The Terps scored two of their four first inning runs with two outs to go along with Russell’s two RBI. Kevin Keister and Michael Iannazzo came up with the two-out RBIs with a double and single respectively. 

Eddie Hacopian added to the two-out RBI category with a RBI double to left center in the bottom of the seventh breaking a scoreless three-inning stretch for Maryland. Eddie is four for nine this series.  

Maryland’s offense finished the game with 11 hits, four walks, and four hit-by-pitches. Five of the hits were for extra bases. Maryland only struck out five times which is a big improvement for a team which came into the weekend second in the Big Ten in strikeouts. 

“When you’re putting pressure on teams and you’re not punching in those situations and, you know, balls are going to be put in play, you know, if you’re striking out a lot and not having a good approach and, you know, you’re not going to have those chances,” head coach Matt Swope said. 

The starting pitching for both sides in this game wasn’t ideal as both head coaches pulled their starters before the fourth inning. Illinois starter, Cooper Omans, made it through only an inning giving up five earned runs. Maryland’s starter, Omar Melendez, lasted only two and two thirds innings giving up the same amount of earned runs. 

The two performances strayed from the norm for both pitchers, especially coming off impressive performances their last time out. Omans threw seven innings of one run ball against Northwestern in his prior start and in Melendez’s first Saturday start as a Terp he pitched six innings allowing two earned runs. 

Due to the lack of success of the starters, the game quickly turned into a battle of the bullpens and Swope’s first move was to bring out former Friday starter Kenny Lippman. Lippman pitched well, giving up only one run in his four and a third innings pitched. Lippman struck out five hitters and walked only one, holding Illinois scoreless for three innings.

“Testament to him he’s been pretty good the last couple outings so he did a great job kind of stabilizing the wild first three and four innings right there,” Swope said. 

Logan Berrier took over for Lippman in the eighth and struggled to put away the Illinois lineup. Berrier gave up two hits and walked two in the top of the eighth allowing the Illini to cut Maryland’s, 9-6 lead, down to one.

Berrier stayed on to pitch the ninth and allowed the lead-off hitter to reach base via a base hit. The next batter laid down a sacrifice bunt moving the runner into scoring position, but it didn’t matter. Berrier struck out the remaining two hitters to end the game. 

Maryland’s pitching allowed 15 hits — only three for extra bases — and four walks while striking out eight batters. Maryland’s arms continued to struggle against Camden Janik who is now five for eight this series. 

Maryland will have a chance to win the weekend series on Sunday in the series rubber match. The Terps are 3-0 on Sunday at home this season.       

Related

Maryland baseball benefited from an early offensive explosion and held off a late push from Illinois to win the second game of their weekend series, 9-8, Saturday in College Park.

Saturday’s win was crucial for Maryland, which will have a chance Sunday to end a streak of four straight series losses. Doing so against the Fighting Illini — who sit first in the BIg Ten standings — makes the opportunity even more enticing.

There were plenty of fireworks early on Saturday. Maryland put up four runs in the first inning, but Omar Melendez gave up a long three-run home run to Jacob Schroeder in the second. Maryland center fielder Elijah Lambros answered with a no-doubt home run to center field shortly after, however Melendez then gave up a two-run home run to Vytas Valincius, tying the game at five.

Melendez was pulled after just 2 ⅔ innings. He gave up five earned runs on seven hits.

“He left some stuff up in the zone, maybe a little bit too much today,” Terps head coach Matt Swope said of Melendez. “He’s got to go to work that changeup down and then the fastball up in the zone.”

Devin Russell put the Terps right back in the lead with a third-inning two-run home run before Eddie Hacopian hit an RBI single to right field to make it 8-5, and Illinois added a run in the top of the fourth. But things cooled down thereafter. The next five innings were scoreless.

Kenny Lippman was lights-out for Maryland after relieving Melendez. He gave the Terps some length, going 4 ⅓ innings, and gave up just one earned run, posting five strikeouts.

Maryland got some more run support in the bottom of the seventh when Hacopian hit an RBI double, setting the stage for reliever Logan Berrier to finish the game.

However, shortly after Berrier entered for the eighth inning, Illinois started inching closer. A hit-by-pitch and passed ball made it a one-run game, and after the Terps went scoreless in the bottom half, the pressure was on.

Schroeder got on base with a single, and a sacrifice bunt brought him to second. But with two outs, Berrier sent Connor Milton down on strikes to end it.

“I said, ‘There wasn’t even a question, we’re gonna send you back out,’” Swope said of his conversation with Berrier. “‘You’ve been lights out all year. … Take a deep breath and go back out there, have a clean inning and then get us a dub.’ And that’s what he did.”

Three things to know

1. Lippman was crucial out of the bullpen. After being taken out of the weekend rotation, Lippman has settled into his new bullpen role well. His performance on Saturday was paramount in the Terps’ win.

2. Lambros had a big day. Lambros recorded three hits, including a home run, out of the nine spot in the lineup. “​​It’s just like, kind of more of what we expect from him if if we’re gonna make a run and we’re gonna do some things here down the stretch,” Swope said.

3. The offense broke out. Maryland’s offense put up nine runs, able to outscore the Illini despite a rough start from the Terps’ pitching staff.

The Whole Watershed Act is a swift and positive response on behalf of the Maryland General Assembly to innovate its approach to regulating and supporting watershed health in the Chesapeake Bay (“Overview of the Whole Watershed Act of 2024,” April 16).

It’s encouraging to see scientists, lawmakers and regulators working together to bring evidence-based reasoning to new forms of watershed governance. The strength of the new approach is dual fold. It will localize the scale at which projects are conceived and implemented, empowering those who live, work, and play on waterways. The second strength is necessitating an integrated project that targets multiple benefits and outcomes of clean water — not the pollution reduction itself — but other critical characteristics of healthy watersheds such as recreation, access to waterways and healthy fisheries.

At Washington College’s Center for Environment and Society (CES), we are training the next generation of environmental stewards and change agents through interdisciplinary, place-based learning.  The Center’s Natural Lands Project has converted over 2,000 acres of marginalized cropland across the Eastern Shore into diverse native meadows, wetlands and forests to increase diversity and improve water quality.

Our Chesapeake Places Program strengthens regional links with students and communities coming together to foster preservation and planning of cultural and natural resources. And the center is presently broadening its research scope to encompass food systems and regenerative agriculture, acknowledging the abundant agricultural potential within our region.

As sustainability is at the heart of our mission here at Washington College, CES sees this legislation as a chance to propose timely, interdisciplinary educational and research projects that can merge natural science and cultural studies to improve, appreciate and understand our place in the watershed. We are excited to see what’s next for the Chesapeake Bay region and happily endeavor to be good stewards and citizens who live and work in this one-of-a-kind natural resource.

— Valerie Imbruce and Beth Choate, Chestertown

The writers are, respectively, director and deputy director of Washington College’s Center for Environment and Society.

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