Through the first few weeks of the young season, the story of Dirty Terps baseball has been – as it usually is – the offense. 

But after Kenny Lippman twirled a gem in the first game of Maryland’s (8-3) weekend series against the Bryant Bulldogs (1-6) at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium, Logan Koester took the ball on Saturday afternoon and was arguably even better, as he pitched Maryland to a dominant 7-0 victory. 

“The last two days it has been so refreshing to see the guys come out and … pound the zone,” said Maryland head coach Matt Swope. “I can’t say enough about [Koester] just attacking, being ahead of hitters, and working himself out of [jams]. It was just an elite start.”

The headliner of Lippman’s performance on Friday night was his career-high nine strikeouts, however, Koester’s gem came in a much different fashion. The George Washington transfer spent a good portion of his afternoon working around traffic, but he appeared unfazed with runners on base. Koester ended up going seven innings on Saturday, and oddly enough his only two 1-2-3 innings were his final two frames of work.   

Koester also pitched to contact extremely effectively, as he finished with just four strikeouts, but induced six groundouts and ten flyouts. 

“Trusting my defense is something that I’ve always really believed in,” said Koester. “With these guys behind me, it makes it a lot easier, so trusting my defense is an easy way to get a victory.”

When Koester left the mound after the top of the seventh, he did so to the tune of a much-deserved applause from both his teammates and the fans in attendance. The senior was later awarded the victory, his third in as many starts this season.

“The fans here are way different [from George Washington], and it’s awesome,” said Koester. “I love all the guys around me … and I can’t wait to do [this] every other week.”                 

On the mound for the Bulldogs was junior right-hander Luke Delongchamp, who initially looked sharp, but surrendered an unearned run in the second, after Devin Russell plated Chris Hacopian with a laser through the five-six hole. 

Then in the third inning, the wheels fell off Delongchamp. Despite piecing together very little hard contact, the Terps got guys on and found holes in a three-run third inning that ultimately chased the Bryant starter. 

“I hate striking out. It’s as simple as that,” said Swope when asked about how the Terps were able to scrap for runs on Saturday. “I guess I’m being picky because we scored seven runs and had 10 hits but we just got to continue to work to have tougher at-bats.”

The rally was kick-started by the wheels of Sam Hojnar. With one out, Hojnar flipped a cue shot to shortstop and beat out the throw to first after an extremely hard 90. Kevin Keister was then hit by a pitch before the Terps loaded the bases on a Bryant error. Back-to-back singles – both of which were perfectly placed – from Alex Calarco and Elijah Lambros plated two runs and one run respectively, giving the Terps a 4-0 advantage. 

“I think when you battle, those good things tend to happen at times, especially at home,” said Swope.

Even though he was able to limit hard contact, Delongchamp exited, having given up four runs (three of which were earned) on six hits, in 2.1 innings of work. The Bulldog junior was also tagged with the loss. 

The Maryland offense added a fifth run in the bottom of the fourth, as Chris Hacopian kept with the theme of driving in runs on singles when he drove in Hojnar with a base hit to left field. Chris Hacopian later finished with two hits, two runs, and one RBI, while Hojnar ended the game with one hit, two runs, and two walks. 

“I think we have that type of offense that can be pesky and can be efficient, and then [we’ll] more explode at times,” said Swope. “We got some guys … that are still trying to figure some things out, and trying to work on stuff, so while you have that going on but can still score seven runs and be efficient, … I’ll take that all day.”        

As Koester continued dealing, the Terps offense kept adding on. In the sixth, Keister pushed across a sixth run on a fielder’s choice. Russell then launched a solo home run to left field in the seventh inning for the Terps’ only long ball of the afternoon.  

During the postgame press conference, Swope said that Russell had been working on not collapsing his back knee during his cage work before Saturday’s game. The tweak evidently paid off.

“He was working underneath the ball a little bit too much,” said Swope. “Making adjustments, [is] what this game is all about. When someone actually does it, and then you talk about it, and you’re on the same page with the adjustment, that’s how you gain confidence.”

Nate Haberthier took over for Koester and pitched a clean final two innings to close the door on the combined shutout performance.    

“Like I keep telling … the team, we’re not even close to hitting our stride,” said Swope. “I think this team can continuously get better and better, so it’s nice to see that you can still score some runs and do that with some guys maybe not [being] as good as you’d expect.”

Saturday afternoon’s complete win secured a series victory for Maryland in its first weekend home series this season. But the Terps will be hoping to pull the brooms out as they look to secure the sweep against Bryant when the two teams return to “The Bob” on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.