Maryland starting pitcher Kyle McCoy toed the rubber against South Florida’s Ryan Pruitt, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Pruitt — the Bulls’ best contact hitter — represented the go-ahead run in a 4-2 game. Though, he hardly had an opportunity to flip the scoreline. 

On the second pitch of the at-bat, sophomore Carlos Jacome stole second, prompting Maryland catcher Alex Calarco to attempt a throw down. But, Calarco lost control on the transfer. The ball aimlessly rolled to the backstop, creating an opportunity for Dawson Mock — the runner on third — to score.

McCoy quickly dashed forward as well, beating Mock to the plate. Meanwhile, Calarco collected the loose baseball and fired to his covering pitcher. The 6-foot-5 lefty athletically dropped to one knee, securing Calarco’s throw, and tagging Mock on the left forearm before he could touch home.

An ecstatic McCoy stood up and empathically spiked the ball back to the mound after having escaped his biggest jam on Friday evening. The redshirt sophomore came back out and finished off the eighth inning, allowing just one earned run in a 5-2 win over USF at Red McEwen Field.   

An efficient McCoy punched out seven batters while walking just one. He also threw a career-high 106 pitches, 73 of which were strikes, in his third win of the season. 

The top of Maryland’s (10-8) order made Friday night’s opening frame uncharacteristically laboursome for Bulls (7-8) starter Corey Braun.

South Florida’s ace hadn’t surrendered more than three runs in any of his four starts entering this weekend’s season-opener; the Terps tagged him for a pair in the first half-inning.

Sophomore Brayden Martin dunked the game’s opening pitch into into right field for a jam-shot single — his first of four hits on the night. A four-pitch walk sent Eddie Hacopian to first and Martin to second, before Chris Hacopian pushed both up one base on a ground out. 

Calarco, Maryland’s leader in RBIs, added a 36th to his season tally with a sacrifice fly. Outfielder Aden Hill then sent a seeing-eye que shot through the five-six hole, scoring Eddie Hacopian from second base as the Terps took an immediate 2-0 lead.  

McCoy breezed through the bottom half of the first inning on just four pitches, before running into sun-induced trouble in the next frame. 

The left-hander struck out clean-up hitter Lance Trippel on a pitch in the dirt to start the second inning. 

Calarco corralled the ball and delivered an accurate throw to first baseman Hollis Porter, but with the setting sun peeking through the stadium facade, Porter lost the ball in the brightness. Calarco’s throw trickled into right field, allowing Trippel to reach second. 

Trippel soon scored on a passed ball as the USF cut Maryland’s advantage in half. But McCoy faced sparse trouble during the middle innings.

Maryland’s ace retired the next two batters to end the second inning, following the run-scoring passed ball. That started a stretch in which McCoy retired 10 straight Bulls hitters on just over 30 pitches.   

That efficiency played a massive role in the start that blossomed into McCoy’s best outing of the season. He delivered strikes with consistency, forcing Bulls hitters to take aggressive hacks early in counts.

Conversely, Maryland’s bats made Bruan’s evening far more strenuous.  

Calarco and Hill — as they did in the first inning — each used productive at-bats to bring home runs in the fifth inning. The Maryland catcher drew a bases-loaded walk to score EJ Hankerson with one out in the frame. 

Hankerson — making his first collegiate start — led off Maryland’s fifth-inning rally with a high-chopping double down the left-field line. The sophomore ultimately finished 2-for-3 before being pinch-hit for in the eighth inning. 

Hill brought home the other run in the fifth inning on an RBI groundout, giving Maryland a 4-1 lead at the game’s halfway point. 

Braun got one more out to start the sixth inning, but with his pitch count sitting at 99, that was the end of his line. The left-hander’s four runs were all earned. He also walked four and struck out five in his second-shortest start of the year. 

The Bulls’ offense eventually got to McCoy for his only earned run of the night with a pair of extra-base hits in the bottom of the sixth inning. Junior Matt Rose legged out a hustle double with one out. Two batters later, Trippel tripled past a diving Hill in right field, scoring Rose with ease.   

McCoy ultimately limited the sixth-inning damage to just that one run, before escaping more danger on the close play at the plate that ended the seventh frame. 

The Terps grabbed a final insurance run in the eighth. On a night when the Terps scored in all three in which they got the leadoff man on base, Jacob Orr started the frame with an integral walk.

Orr soon advanced to third on a Porter base hit and came in to score when Elijah Lambros pulled a base hit into left field.  

After finishing off Wednesday’s midweek against Mount St. Mary’s, sophomore Joey Mcmannis once again took the hill out of the bullpen in Friday’s ninth inning. 

McMannis dealt with tension as he surrendered a pair of walks to bring the tying run to the dish with two outs. But in that high-leverage spot, McMannis won the battle by getting a swinging strikeout to end the game. The punch-out also locked down McMannis’ first career save.

The Terps will have an opportunity to win the series in Saturday’s 2 p.m. matchup from Tampa. Freshman Logan Hastings is expected to get the start for Maryland, with Nate Schwartz on the call for MBN.