A Mother’s Day sweep was not to be for the Terps.  

The Maryland Terrapins (34-19, 10-11) entered the final game of its weekend series against the Boston College Eagles (22-27, 8-19), searching for its first sweep since early March. The Terps were victorious in both contests of Saturday’s doubleheader, but a pitcher’s duel on Sunday afternoon ultimately rolled in favor of the Eagles, after Boston College cleanup hitter Nick Wang led off the bottom of the ninth inning by mashing a walk-off home run over the left field fence.

Wang’s moonshot allowed Boston College to salvage the final game of the non-conference series, with a 2-1 over the Terps.

Left-hander Evan Smith got his first weekend start of the season – and second start overall – for Maryland on Sunday afternoon. The freshman battled through some command issues in the early going. 

Smith surrendered a four-pitch walk to Cameron Leary with one away in the first inning. The speedy Leary then swiped two bags to get 90 feet away from home. With two outs, Wang delivered his first big hit of the day by lacing a double off the left-field wall, scoring Leary to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. 

After laboring through that 24-pitch first inning though, Smith settled in.

The freshman faced just two batters over the minimum through the next five innings, using the spacious yard to his advantage by getting nine fly ball outs during that time. 

Smith exited the first weekend start of his collegiate career having turned in a terrific six innings of one-run baseball, striking out five and giving up just four hits along the way.

However, while Smith was posting zeros the Maryland offense was doing the same. 

The Terps got at least one man on in each of the first four innings, but Boston College starter Michael Farinelli remained unfazed despite the traffic. 

Farinelli was doing the opposite of his counterpart Smith, getting Maryland hitters out by keeping them on top of the ball. The graduate student induced eight groundouts through his five innings of work to help the Eagles maintain their 1-0 lead. 

Sunday afternoon’s outing was possibly Farinelli’s best this season.  

After the Terps again failed to score in the sixth and seventh innings, Chris Hacopian finally got a run for the Terps in the eighth.

The freshman continued his tremendous campaign with one of his most clutch moments of the season, lining a hanging slider over the left field fence to even the game at one apiece. At the time, Hacopian’s homer was just the second long ball from either side throughout the series.

Despite the momentum swing though, Boston College threatened in the bottom of the frame.

Leadoff man Sam McNulty got a single to reach base with one out, before scampering all the way to third on two passed balls. But just when it seemed like the Eagles would certainly retake the lead, Maryland’s Andrew Johnson bowed his neck and got a strikeout and groundout to strand McNulty at third.

A quiet top of the ninth, however, left the door open for the Eagles in the bottom of the frame. Wang took full advantage of the opportunity with his walk-off home run, handing Johnson the tough-luck loss in the process.

Despite Sunday’s loss though, the Terps actually had a pretty good day as far as their conference standing is concerned.

Northwestern beat Ohio State (in what was just the Wildcats’ third Big Ten win of the season) and Michigan State collapsed on the road at Minnesota (the Spartans were winning 12-2 after five and a half innings, before giving up 13 unanswered runs to lose 15-12 on a walk-off home run).

The wild Sunday now means that Maryland, Ohio State, and Michigan State will all head into the final weekend of the regular season tied for seventh in the Big Ten, each with 10-11 records in conference play. Given the records of the teams above and below them, two of the three squads will almost certainly lock up the last two spots in the Big Ten tournament next weekend, while one is guaranteed to miss out.

With their season on the line, Maryland will head back to The Bob for a three-game set against Penn State next weekend. The series is set to start on Thursday night at 6 p.m.