The Dirty Terps knew that this could be a difficult weekend against Illinois, and it looked to be every bit of that on Friday night.

Maryland (26-17, 6-10) entered the first game of its series against Illinois (25-13, 11-2), losers of its previous four Big Ten series. By contrast, the Fighting Illini came in with a two-game lead over Nebraska atop the Big Ten standings, and are still yet to lose a conference series this season.

Those discrepancies were evident on Friday night, as the Illinois offense scored early and often, while starter Jack Crowder delivered a strong performance, en route to a 7-4 victory over Maryland.  

“I think as a group collectively, we just need to play better baseball,” said Maryland head coach Matt Swope. “There wasn’t any … phase that we did well enough to win a Friday night game versus a first place team.”    

Logan Koester took over Friday night starting duties in Nebraska last weekend and delivered a clean first two innings before running into trouble in the third and fourth frames of that start. The redshirt senior got the ball again on Friday night against the Fighting Illini, and yet again, his appearance was short-lived.   

Cal Hejza almost single-handedly put the Fighting Illini on the board in the first. After smoking a double off the left-center field wall, the senior got a massive jump to swipe third on the very next pitch. Two-hole hitter Camden Janik then plated Hejza after roping a single to center. 

The opening frame could’ve been far worse for the Terps after Drake Westcott added a third straight hit to open the game for the Fighting Illini. Thankfully for Maryland though, Koester managed to avoid disaster thanks to a double play and fielder’s choice. 

The top of the second inning looked eerily similar to the first for Illinois. Jacob Harding got the Fighting Illini going with a leadoff double and was then brought home one batter later following a base hit up the middle from Coltin Quagliano. Once again though, Koester limited the damage to just one.

A clean third followed for Koester, but Illinois managed to break through and post a crooked number in the fourth. 

With one away in the inning, the Fighting Illini put runners on first and second after a walk and an error. Both then moved up 90 feet after getting massive jumps on a double steal, a move that inevitably paid off as Janik drove both home with yet another base hit to center. Janik would later come around to score on a passed ball.

“That’s more on us as a coaching staff,” said Swope, speaking on the problems that Koester and the infield faced with holding runners on. “We work on that stuff [and] we just have to be better at it.”

Like last Friday, Koester’s night was done after just four innings. The righty departed with a final line that read: 7 H, 5 R (3 earned), 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts. He was later tagged with the loss as well. 

“We’re just looking for some consistency,” said Swope, regarding Koester’s start. “He [was] battling out there, [but] we didn’t do a great job defensively.”

Unfortunately for Koester, the offense didn’t provide him with much run support either. 

Illinois’ Jack Crowder had been fairly average as the Fighting Illini’s Friday night starter this season—the senior entered the evening with a 5.03 ERA in 10 starts—but looked stellar against the Terps this time around.

In six innings of work, the senior surrendered just two runs on two hits and struck out five while walking just three. The two blemishes on Crowder’s line came in the third and sixth innings. 

Alex Calarco led off the bottom of the third with a double into the right field corner, before Elijah Lambros and Eddie Hacopian brought him home with a sacrifice fly and RBI groundout respectively. 

Three innings later Sam Hojnar sliced an opposite-field home run perfectly inside of the left-field foul pole, to give the Terps their second run—and hit—of the evening.  

With Crowder cruising, the Fighting Illini added a few more runs for insurance off Maryland reliever Andrew Johnson. The junior delivered three solid frames but surrendered two runs in the process, the first of which via a sixth-inning solo home run from Coltin Quagliano. The Fighting Illini then got their seventh and final run of the game thanks to a two-out base hit from Brody Harding in the next inning. 

Ben Plumley delivered two shutdown innings out of the bullpen for the Fighting Illini, before the Terps managed to get a two out rally off of Illinois reliever Korey Bunselmeyer in the bottom of the ninth. 

However, Maryland only managed to yield two runs from its last-gasp effort and ultimately came up short as Illinois shortstop Cal Hejza made a terrific play up the middle to close out the game.

“We’re just trying to find a place where we play better down the stretch,” said Swope. “We just need to play more consistent baseball. That’s something we did earlier in the year that we haven’t done recently.”

Maryland and Illinois will be back at “The Bob” for game two of this weekend’s series, tomorrow at 2 p.m. The Terps will be looking for a bounce-back performance on what’s set to be a lively Maryland Day around campus.

“We just need to find a spark somewhere, and hopefully Omar [Melendez] can give that to us tomorrow like he did last week,” said Swope.