Maryland’s offense looked jet-lagged on Friday night, scoring just four runs in its series opener against Washington. It was a similar story on Saturday evening, but freshman starting pitcher Logan Hastings answered the call for the Dirty Terps. 

In his fourth start of the year, the right-hander dazzled through 7.2 innings, striking out six batters while only allowing three hits and one run in Maryland’s 2-1 win over Washington at Husky Ballpark on Saturday. 

With Hastings cruising through the Huskies lineup and the score knotted at one, the Terps desperately needed some run support. Chris Hacopian answered the call in the seventh with an RBI double to give Hastings a thin one-run lead, which proved to be just enough to squeak out the win. 

Maryland (12-11, 2-3 Big Ten) put runs on the board first when Hollis Porter launched an opposite-field solo home run over the left field wall to put the Terps ahead in the top of the fourth inning.

However, Washington (10-14, 3-2 Big Ten) immediately responded in the bottom of that frame. 

After Hastings allowed his first hit of the game on a double from Husky left fielder AJ Guerrero, the freshman briefly lost his command. He fired a wild pitch to advance Guerrero to third before the Husky outfielder came across to score on a sacrifice fly.

The Terps’ bats were once again quiet for most of the night despite a host of scoring opportunities. 

In both the fifth and sixth innings, the Terps found themselves with runners on first and second, but both rallies were quickly quieted by Washington pitching. Maryland left 11 total runners on base on Saturday night.

Even with the bats scuffling, it was by far Hastings’ best outing of his young collegiate career.

It looked like Hastings would make it through a full eight innings, but a lengthy replay review in his final inning of work delayed Hastings’ groove. After the delay, he immediately surrendered a four-pitch walk, which ended his outing.

Sophomore Joey McMannis came on in relief for Hastings. The right-handed sophomore quickly ended the Washington threat in the eighth on just two pitches. 

McMannis came back out to close the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. 

After getting the first out of the inning, McMannis ran into trouble by allowing a single, which was then followed by a walk. In the game’s decisive moment though, McMannis shifted into another gear. He struck out the final two Washington batters to secure the one-run win.

Washington starter Jackson Thomas played a big role in keeping Maryland’s offense off the board. 

Even though the Huskies starter allowed a base runner in each of his first three innings, he managed to escape the trouble each time. Outside of Porter’s solo shot, Thomas didn’t allow any more runs on three other hits through his five total innings.

With their second Big Ten win of the season, the Terps improved to 12-11 to stay above .500. The win also saw Maryland even this weekend’s series against the Huskies. 

The Terps have one more game out west on Sunday afternoon with the series finale against Washington at 4:05 p.m. EST. With the series now even at one apiece, Maryland will be looking to take its first Big Ten series win of the year. Jack Susanin will again be on the call for MBN.