The Terps march to the Big Ten Tournament just became a lot more difficult.

Maryland (34-20, 10-12) entered their final series of the regular season hoping for a sweep that would guarantee them a spot in the Big Ten Tournament. But after facing constant pressure from the Penn State (24-23, 10-12) offense—the Nittany Lions put a runner on base in every inning—on Thursday afternoon, the Terps fell behind early and couldn’t quite mount a comeback, losing the series opener 8-4.

Omar Melendez had been fabulous for the Terps since taking over series-opening starting duties but on Thursday afternoon he walked a tightrope in what was ultimately a short-lived appearance.  

The lefty struggled to find his command in a long first inning that saw several deep counts and 24 total pitches. With a man in scoring position though, Melendez was able to find the zone for back-to-back strikeouts to escape the minor jam.

After a second inning that featured a host of loud outs and foul balls, Penn State finally found its breakthrough in the third thanks to a line drive home run to left field from nine-hole hitter Kevin Michaels. 

Melendez ended up throwing 32 pitches in that third inning to run his total up to 74 after just three frames. 

The Nittany Lions’ lead was short-lived however, because Chris Hacopian opened the bottom of the third by launching a 380-foot moonshot over the left field fence. Hacopian’s long ball gave the freshman his team-leading 15th home run of the season. 

Penn State wasted no time snatching that lead right back though. 

A throwing error from Kevin Keister allowed Tayven Kelly to reach first to open the top of the fourth. Two batters later Michaels again haunted Melendez, but this time he did so with an RBI single to score Kelly. 

Melendez only gave up one earned run in his four innings of work, but the long counts eventually caught up with him as he threw 87 pitches.

“We probably could’ve rode him out a little bit more,” said Maryland head coach Matt Swope. “[Omar] is kind of a danger guy. He’s gonna throw a lot of pitches and he’s gonna work in and out [of jams], and that’s just kind of what he does. He was pretty good today.”

For the most part, Melendez was able to work through his jams, but the same could not be said for the Maryland bullpen.

Kenny Lippman, who had been excellent since his move to the bullpen, surrendered two runs in the fifth inning on an RBI base hit and a sacrifice fly.

Trystan Sarcone then got the ball for the sixth inning and he gave up a three-run blast to Adam Cecere, making the score 7-1 in favor of the Nittany Lions. Cecere’s long ball would eventually prove to be the knockout punch.  

Facing the lofty deficit though, the Maryland did find a spark. 

After Kevin Keister led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk, Jacob Orr brought him all the way around by lacing a two-run homer to left center. Nittany Lions starter Travis Luensmann exited a few batters later, before Eddie Hacopian smoked an RBI single to center to get the Terps their third run of the inning. 

It appeared that Maryland could’ve tacked on even more in the frame, as Chris Hacopian represented the tying run when he stepped into the box with runners on the corners and one out. But the inning ended abruptly as Devin Russell was gunned down at home trying to tag on a short pop-out from Chris Hacopian.

After the game, Swope—who was coaching third—explained that he said: “tag, tag, tag,” while the ball was in the air. This prompted Russell to try the risky tag up, but Swope clarified that he, “should’ve just been screaming no.”

I’ll take responsibility for that,” added Swope.

Following the rally-killing base running lapse though, the Terps couldn’t string together another big inning.

After getting the Nittany Lions out of the woods in the sixth inning, Penn State’s Mason Horwat shut the Maryland offense down through the final three innings, to hold the Terps to just four runs on the afternoon.

“When we’ve won, we’ve built up some big innings,” said Swope. “We just didn’t do enough offensively.”

Matt Maloney tacked on one final run for Penn State in the top of the ninth, with a mammoth solo home run down the right-field line.

Games two and three of this weekend’s series were originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday respectively. However, with rain in the forecast on Saturday, the series finale has been moved up a day, meaning the Terps and Nittany Lions will now play a doubleheader on Friday.

The first game of the doubleheader is set to start at 1 p.m. tomorrow, while the second will start approximately 45 minutes after the conclusion of game one.

“If you’re looking at … college baseball you’re just trying to win series’, and we have a chance to do that tomorrow,” said Swope.