In 2021, the Maryland bats were purely out of this world.
With a Big Ten-leading 72 home runs, the Terps produced many memorable home runs on their journey to a second-place finish in the conference. Below are just some of the most important and awesome home runs of the 2021 season, and with many of these sluggers returning in 2022, it’s time to prepare for another year of the long ball.
Vought’s THIRD home run of the game
In a 12-4 clobbering of the Fighting Illini on May 8 — when the Terps bashed six home runs — Justin Vought had a career game, hitting three home runs.
The home run that capped off the incredible performance came in the eighth inning. Vought sent a 1-1 pitch against Illinois reliever Ryan Kutt out of the park to make it a 7-3 lead and to become the first Terp to have a three-home run game since Tyler Bennett did it against Wake Forest on May 9, 2009.
Maxwell Costes moonshot onto the Varsity Team House
Who doesn’t like monster home runs?
That’s what Maxwell Costes produced in a tightly-contested ballgame against Ohio State on April 18. With Maryland trailing 1-4 in the third inning, Costes was put in a game-changing situation after a walk and hit batter landed Chris Alleyne and Benjamin Cowles on base.
Costes wasted almost no time, slugging the second pitch he saw far over the left field wall onto the Varsity Team House for a home run well over 400 feet to tie the game at 4-4.
The huge home run would also become an integral part of the 9-0 scoring run that Maryland went on to secure the 9-4 win.
Benjamin Cowles fifth home run against Rutgers
Part of the reason Cowles — or “Benny Bombs” — led the Big Ten with 18 home runs in 2021 was due to his monster weekend against Rutgers.
In a four-game series at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium, Cowles hit more home runs than games that weekend with five bombs. The junior’s fifth home run came in the eighth inning in the second leg of the March 13 doubleheader, when he smoked the first pitch he saw over the left-center field wall.
The series as a whole didn’t go the way the Terps may have wanted — splitting the four games with Rutgers — but Cowles’ long ball onslaught proved to be his coming out party for a legendary season.
Not three, but two will do for Vought
It become practice that when Vought hit home runs in 2021, he would hit them in pairs (at least).
Although he couldn’t match his three-home run performance on May 21, Vought came through big time even though the Terps didn’t know it. Maryland was cruising with a 6-0 lead through the first five innings against Michigan, including Vought’s first home run of the game. Just an inning later, Vought hit a huge two-run bomb to put the team up 8-0.
The home run would ultimately become ever so important because the following three innings featured an incredible comeback effort from Michigan, tying the game when they were down to their final out. However, it was Maryland that still came out on top, thanks to the offensive effort to Vought that helped get them into extra innings rather than losing on a walk-off.
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