It’s not often that the Terps get swept, but the threat of that was absolutely looming on Sunday in College Park.

After laboring through the first two games of its weekend series against Indiana (18-15, 3-3), Maryland (22-10, 4-5) showed a lot more fight throughout a back-and-forth affair on Sunday. The Terps out-hit the Hoosiers 10-3 on the afternoon, but the game came down to the final pitch.

Luckily for the Terps, captain Kevin Keister made the most of the moment, driving in Brayden Martin with a walk-off base hit, to win the game 6-5 and avoid what would’ve been the Terps’ first time getting swept since 2019.

“Sweeps and not getting swept is about team character,” said Maryland head coach Matt Swope. “It’s about camaraderie. No matter whether we were up or down, the guys battled back.”

The Maryland pitching staff struggled mightily going all the way back to the previous weekend’s series at Michigan, but on Sunday Joey McMannis took the mound for Maryland and gave his squad something to cheer about early on.

Through the first five innings, McMannis limited the Hoosiers to just one run on two hits, providing some much-needed depth for a pitching staff that had given up 29 runs in the first two games of the series.   

“He dominated the whole game,” said Swope, regarding McMannis’ performance against a stellar Indiana lineup. “[That’s] easily the best lineup we’ve seen this year.”

On the other side of the ball, the Terps offense showed signs of life in the first inning, opening the frame with three straight singles and a walk. But they ultimately came up empty-handed after Brayden Martin was thrown out trying to take second on an errant throw and Chris Hacopian was later picked off. 

“It’s just freshmen. Mistakes are going to happen when they play,” said Swope. “Those are just situations where you’ve got to teach, and teach, and teach.”

Following the first-inning traffic, Maryland’s bats kept the pressure on Indiana starter Ty Rybarczyk, and it paid off in the third. 

The rally started with a one-out base hit from Chris Hacopian, which was followed up by a two-out double from Sam Hojanr, putting both in scoring position for Keister. The senior then laced a sinking liner to right, which snuck past Hoosier outfielder Nick Mitchell to plate Hacopian and Hojnar.   

Keister’s line drive was ultimately ruled an error as Mitchell appeared to have a beat on it before whiffing on the catch. 

“The last few days we didn’t score many runs, so it definitely felt good to get that lead in the third inning,” said Keister.

The lone run given up by McMannis through the first five frames came via a fourth-inning home run off the bat of Devin Taylor. Indiana only tallied three hits off McMannis, two of which came from Taylor.

After five innings of one-run ball, however, the wheels fell off for McMannis in the sixth.

The freshman had struggled with walks in previous outings this season and in the sixth inning, he walked two of the first three Hoosiers, before allowing both to score on a throwing error of his own. 

“I just use it as a teaching point,” said Swope, who acknowledged the difficulty of McMannis’ errant PFP. “We’re never going to be emotional with a lot of these younger guys. We’re just going to have to teach the game every single day.”

Two more Hoosiers touched home after a third walk and a base hit, knocking McMannis out of the game. His final line read: 5.2 IP, 5 R (1 earned), 3 H, 4 BB, 2 K’s. 

Indiana’s Jack Moffitt ended up taking over for Rybarczyk to start the fourth and held Maryland’s bats in check for the next two frames before the Terps broke through again in the sixth to tie the game.

All three of Maryland’s sixth-inning runs came in different fashions. The rally opened with an RBI infield single from Jacob Orr. Two batters later, Brayden Martin drew a bases-loaded walk, before Chris Hacopian evened the score at five by taking a bases-loaded HBP. 

An eventful sixth inning for both sides was followed by a relievers duel as Maryland’s Logan Berrier and Indiana’s Drew Buhr shut down opposing hitters to maintain the tie heading into the ninth. Berrier then delivered a clean top of the ninth, setting the stage for the Cardiac Terps to do what they do best.

“I can’t say enough about [Logan] this season,” said Swope “He’s been really good as a reliever [and today] he kept us in the game.”

Brayden Martin started the rally with a leadoff walk, and the freshman then reached third after fellow freshman Chris Hacopian laced a double to right, putting two men in scoring position without nobody out.

“He’s the best freshman in the country,” said Swope of Chris Hacopian. Swope also added that they didn’t want Hacopian bunting in that situation because of his ability to drive the ball. The freshman reached base all five times he stepped to the plate on Sunday, going 4-4 with an RBI, R, and HBP.

Two batters later Keister stepped up and delivered the fourth walk-off for the Terps this season, sneaking a base-hit through a drawn-in five-man infield.

Keister said that he stepped into the box expecting an off-speed pitch, and his game-winning hit came on a first-pitch slider.

“That’s what he’s supposed to do,” said Swope. “He’s sitting on a slider knowing that they probably don’t want to throw him a fastball … and he gets the hit on the first pitch. That’s what you’re trying to preach [to the player], embracing those moments and not being scared of them.”

The Terps will look to carry their walk-off momentum into a busy upcoming week. Maryland has two midweek matchups (Tuesday at Georgetown and Wednesday at UMBC), before heading to Evanston next weekend for a series against Northwestern.