Neither at the plate nor on the mound did anything go right for Maryland on Saturday, as the Terps (22-14) lost 11-1 to Northwestern (12-19) at Rocky and Berenice Miller Park in Evanston, Illinois, extending their losing streak to four games.

The loss marks the latest in a string of poor performances for the Terps. Maryland has now dropped eight of its last 10 games and after going nearly three years without losing a series to a Big Ten foe, the Terps have dropped conference series the last three weekends. 

After losing Friday’s series opener in extra innings, it didn’t take long for the Terps to fall behind Saturday. Five pitches into the bottom of the first inning, Preston Knott clubbed a leadoff home run to give the Wildcats a quick lead. Lorenzo Rios, Northwestern’s designated hitter, drove in three runs on a pair of two-out doubles in the second and fourth innings to extend the Maryland deficit to four. 

The following inning, the Terps completely collapsed. Northwestern took advantage of an Eddie Hacopian error to grow its lead to five runs. When Logan Koester was removed with one out in the inning, the scoreboard read 7-0. By the time the inning concluded, Maryland had turned to two bullpen arms and the Northwestern lead sat at 11. 

 In 4 ⅓ innings, Koester was charged with nine runs, six of them being earned. After a strong start to the season where he looked largely untouchable, Koester has allowed 20 runs in his last three starts. The redshirt senior ended non conference play with an ERA of 2.79. However, that number has ballooned up to 5.83 since Big Ten competition began. 

Nate Haberthier came in to relieve Koester, but only recorded a single out and gave up two runs before being removed. Andrew Johnson pitched the final 3 ⅓ innings, striking out three batters and not allowing any further Wildcats to score. 

Maryland made three errors on the day, two of which directly led to runs. In addition to poor defense, the Maryland bats did little to give the team hope, only accruing seven hits in the game. Freshman Michael Iannazzo had two doubles, the first multi-hit game of his collegiate career, and Eddie Hacopian went 3-for-4 at the plate. 

Maryland came within an out of being shutout for the first time in nearly three years, but with two outs in the ninth inning, Alex Calarco, a Northwestern transfer, ripped an RBI double, accounting for the teams lone run. 

The last time Maryland was held scoreless was on May 7, 2021, a 2-0 loss to Illinois. The lineup was led by Chris Alleyne and Matt Shaw, both have since been selected in the first round of the MLB Draft, and Tommy Gardiner, now an assistant coach with the Terps, was batting sixth. 

Maryland will look to avoid a sweep on Sunday at 2 p.m.