Maryland’s offense established itself as a power-driven unit by slugging 29 home runs through its first 14 games of the 2025 season. But that reputation has wavered over the past week. 

The Terps entered Saturday’s game against South Florida without a home run in their previous four contests. That stretch grew to five after the second game of this weekend’s set.   

On a day when South Florida tallied two early long balls, Maryland’s week of offensive power struggles continued in a 4-3 loss to USF at Red McEwen Field. Just as importantly, the Terps went a measly 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.  

Bulls (8-8) center fielder Ryan Pruitt had found immense success at the plate in 2025, largely thanks to his contact-focused skill set. But the USF leadoff man displayed a different element of his game on Saturday. 

Pruitt launched starter Logan Hastings’ fourth pitch of the day — an elevated offering — over the fence in straight-away right field.  

Mild concern set in after Hastings walked the next batter on five pitches. But the freshman received significant help from his defense. 

Eddie Hacopian recorded the first out after Hastings fielded a comebacker and fired to second base in an effort to get the lead runner. Maryland’s (10-9) captain secured the high throw with a leaping grab before landing on the bag a tick before USF’s Matt Rose slid in. 

Aden Hill made a sprawling, full-extension grab in shallow right field to retire the next batter. Shortstop Chris Hacopian — who was shifted to the opposite side of the second-base bag — then ranged to his left to field a grounder. The sophomore niftily made a pirouette throw to first baseman Hollis Porter to end the inning.

Hastings mostly settled in after the dicey first inning.

He retired the side in order in the second frame and got the first two batters out in the following inning. Rose ultimately broke up Hastings’ stretch by sneaking his first career home run over the left-field wall, extending USF’s lead to 2-0. 

But that was short-lived. 

Maryland’s struggles with runners on base began against lefty Brandon Keyster, who was making his first start of the season. Porter broke the team-wide scuffle — and chased Keyster — by roping a fourth-inning RBI double into the right-center gap. 

The Maryland first basemen came around to score a few at-bats later when freshman Parker Corbin delivered a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to tie the game at two.

Hastings held that score in place for one inning before running into consequential trouble during the fifth.

The first three Bulls reached base on a single, walk, and hit-by-pitch. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Pruitt burned Hastings for a second time. The junior launched a 385-foot single to the warning track in center, which plated a pair as the Bulls took a 4-2 advantage. 

Hastings exited after facing one more batter. 

The right-handed freshman logged 4.1 innings, giving up four runs (all earned) on the same number of hits and an additional three walks. Hastings also failed to strike anyone out in the shortest start of his young career.  

Saturday’s game then turned into a relief pitchers duel following Hastings’ exit.

Fellow freshman Cristofer Cespedes cleaned up the fourth-inning mess. He induced a popout from USF’s three-hole hitter before striking out the Bulls’ clean-up man to escape a massive jam with two runners in scoring position. 

Cespedes continued posting zeros in what became the longest outing of his career. The hard-throwing right-hander surrendered one hit and a lone walk between the sixth and eighth innings, getting Bulls hitters to swing under his pitches for seven total outs in the air. 

But Cespedes’ 3.2 innings of scoreless relief were somewhat overshadowed by an even more impressive display out of South Florida’s bullpen.   

Bryce Archie took over for Keyster following Porter’s run-scoring double in the fourth, and like Maryland, the Bulls’ first call to the pen turned into their only call to the pen. 

The junior righty allowed an inherited runner to score in the fourth but decisively kept Maryland off the board over the next three frames. Terps hitters went nine-up, nine-down during that span, striking out four times as Archie’s high velocity gave them fits.      

Chris Hacopian and Alex Calarco finally created a stressful inning for Archie, when the pair led off the eighth with consecutive singles. 

In a first-and-third scenario, Hill poked a slow groundout to the shortstop. That productive out allowed Chris Hacopian to score as Calarco advanced to second. But Maryland’s catcher ran the Terps out of the scoring opportunity when he attempted to take third on a ground ball to the USF shortstop. 

Calarco was promptly tagged for the second out of the eighth inning, as Maryland’s best scoring opportunity with Archie on the hill essentially evaporated. 

The Terps only managed a lowly two-out base hit in the last inning. Archie induced all three of the final outs in the air, working around the slight traffic as he secured the win in his six-inning relief apperance.

First pitch for Sunday’s rubber match is set for 1 p.m. For the final time this weekend, Nate Schwartz will have the call from Tampa on MBN.