Baseball was back in session at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, as the Maryland Terrapins (2-1) hosted an in-state rival, the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers (1-2) for their 2024 season home-opener.

They couldn’t have asked for a better start to their home campaign. The Terps defeated the Mountaineers in College Park, 14-3, moving to 3-1 on the young season. 

The Dirty Terps came out swinging early, amassing six runs on three hits on just one out. They quickly ran The Mount’s starting pitcher, freshman Jakob Foster, out of the game. 

Freshman Chris Hacopian picked up where he left off during last weekend’s series, crushing a ball down the left field line, scoring his older brother Eddie. The elder Hacopian was also a force to be reckoned with, getting on base in each of his first four at-bats, which included three walks. 

Immediately after the younger Hacopian’s double, Sam Hojnar, the redshirt senior transfer from Iowa, delivered his own double from the cleanup spot, bringing Kevin Keister home. Hojnar spoke pregame about how he can use his experience in the Big Ten to be a leader for this Terrapin squad: 

“I just hope that I’m able to feel comfortable and feel relaxed,” Hojnar said. “I know that I’ve played a lot of games in this conference before, and it’s something I hope the rest of the team can do as well, we’ve got a lot of experience.”

Shortly after the Terps added a third run thanks to an Alex Calarco sacrifice fly, freshman Brayden Martin added a third double, smacking one on a drive to left field which bounced off the Mountaineers’ outfielder’s glove after a diving catch attempt. The hit would clear the bases, bringing Hojnar, Elijah Lambros, and Devin Russell home. 

The Terps offense went quiet for a few innings after the Mountaineers turned to sophomore Max McCrary, but kept applying pressure. They brought another run home in the bottom of the fifth, as Russell scored once again thanks to a deep fly from Lambros that one-hopped off the outfield wall. 

However, the offense wouldn’t stay quiet for very long. In the bottom of the eighth, the Terps brought five more runs across, highlighted by a monster three-run shot by catcher Devin Russell, his first home run as a Terp, and the first ball to leave the yard in 2024. 

“I mean, it’s always good to get the first one out of the way,” Russell said about the hit. “And when the lights went off, it was an unreal feeling.”

In total, the Terps amassed 12 hits, 13 RBIs, and drew 12 walks. Despite an almost entirely new lineup taking the field this season, the offensive dominance we saw in 2023 remains. 

“That’s always been our thing, we’re gonna swing at strikes and take balls,” head coach Matt Swope said. “I just tried to preach to the guys like hey, listen, this is about the process. If we stick with the process over the course of the year, we’re going to walk a lot, so, I was happy with that.”

On the opposite side of the ball, an excellent performance from junior Ryan Van Buren kept the Terps in control. Van Buren showed flashes last season, but would often struggle in the middle innings. On Tuesday, he was dominant from the start, finishing his day with just one earned run (one unearned as well) in five and two-thirds innings pitched. He gave up just four hits and two walks while striking out four batters. 

“Just tremendous. We’ve been looking for midweek stars like that for years,” Swope said of Van Buren. “He’s been Steady Eddie in the fall and in the preseason, and I can’t say enough about him. He was super efficient in his pitch count and in his pitches, he was attacking, he was ahead. You can’t ask for anything else.”

The bullpen once again had a strong showing, only allowing one run after Van Buren’s exit. Junior Omar Melendez, a transfer from Alabama State and a native of Puerto Rico, came in and impressed in his first action in a Maryland uniform. He pitched three innings and recorded four strikeouts. 

A hot start to the Swope era continued after Tuesday’s victory, Swope’s first home victory as head coach, but it will be a short-lived time at home in College Park. The Terps will gear up and hit the road this weekend, as they compete in the Kleberg Bank College Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas. They’ll face Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Pittsburgh, and Washington.