Maryland baseball uses late power surge to defeat Delaware, 11-6

A pair of late-game home runs were the big difference in Maryland baseball’s 11-6 win over Delaware on Wednesday.

After the Blue Hens took a 3-0 lead in the first two innings, Maryland responded with four runs in the fifth to take a one-run lead. That held until the eighth, when Maxwell Costes hit a grand slam with two outs to break the game open. Delaware made it close again with a three-run eighth, but Chris Alleyne hit a two-run shot in the ninth, his third homer in two games, to give Maryland more than enough separation.

Drew Wilden took the hill for Maryland in what became another midweek bullpen day. However, he had a rough outing early on, giving up five hits and three earned runs in 1.1 innings of work. It was the Terps bullpen that really took the reins after Wilden’s outing, as the combination of Will Glock, Tuck Tucker and Elliot Zoellner were the difference makers.

The Blue Hens (1-14) started the scoring in the first with a pair of doubles. Leadoff hitter Kevin Mohollen doubled to start the inning and Jordan Hutchins doubled him home two batters later, giving Delaware a 1-0 lead. They further increased that lead in the second, as Jack Goan hit a solo home run to lead off the inning, putting Delaware up 2-0. Chance DiFebbo followed with a single, advancing to third on a Austin Colmery single. DiFebbo scored one batter later as Erik Bowren, singled him home to put the Blue Hens up 3-0.

While Maryland was down, like in other games this season, they fought back and benefitted from a big inning. In the fourth, Tommy Gardiner was hit by a pitch, then scored on a Caleb Walls RBI triple to cut the Delaware lead down to 3-1. Walls scored two batters later as Randy Bednar singled him home for his 15th RBI of the season to get Maryland within 3-2. Costes was intentionally walked to put Ben Cowles up at the plate, and the freshman doubled down the left-field line, scoring Bednar and Costes to put Maryland up 4-3.

The Maryland bullpen took over from there, allowing one hit from the third inning on. However, in the eighth, the Terps got some much-needed insurance runs from the bat of Costes. Caleb Walls and Chris Alleyne both singled and Taylor Wright was intentionally walked to load the bases for the Terps with two outs. Up to the plate stepped Costes, who came into the game leading the Big Ten in RBI. He would add to his total with a two-out grand slam, his third homer of the season, to put Maryland ahead 8-3.

Delaware would fight back in the bottom half, getting some runs after Maryland reliever Nick Turnbull entered. Jacob Hutchins singled up the middle, scoring Colmery, but a throwing error allowed another run to score, cutting the Maryland lead to 8-5. An RBI groundout from Vinny Vaccone further cut into the lead, making it 8-6.

Maryland used more late-inning power to blow the game open. Sebastian Holte-Mancera began the scoring, doubling, advancing to third, and then scoring on a ground out to increase the Terps’ lead to 9-6. Alleyne followed a few batters later after Walls was hit by a pitch, homering to left field, a two-run shot, to put Maryland out in front by five. Daniel O’Connor finished the Blue Hens off with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth.

After losing on a walk-off home run in Newark in 2018, Maryland has now swept the season series from Delaware, with last week’s midweek game resulting in an 11-6 Terps win.

Maryland hosts No. 17 East Carolina for a weekend series in College Park starting Friday, arguably the Terps biggest series of the season.