After a tough weekend in Louisiana that featured a blown three-run lead in the ninth and a 15th inning walkoff, it appeared that Maryland baseball was at the gates of heartbreak yet again.

Despite entering the ninth inning with a five-run lead, the Terps found themselves once again trailing after giving up their second grand slam of the game to Delaware. However, as they had at various times throughout the evening, the Dirty Terps displayed resilience one last time.

Sophomore infielder Paul Jones II found himself down to his final strike after a big swing and a miss put him in a 0-2 count with two outs and bases loaded. With three infielders to the right side of second base, Jones would find just enough space to get the shift-beating RBI single past the infield to walk off Maryland’s (4-4) 15-14 comeback victory over Delaware (1-7).

“It’s really just being confident in myself,” Jones II said. “Knowing that the other guy on the mound has nothing to beat me with and ultimately knowing in my heart that I can do it.”

The Terps put the pressure on freshman right-handed pitcher Chase Deibler in his first collegiate start. Junior leftfielder Brayden Martin took a leadoff walk and quickly stole second before junior infielder David Mendez drove him home off a single. 

After a quick first inning for junior left-handed pitcher Landon Edwards, sitting down the first three batters on nine pitches, things became shaky in the second. Edwards gave up a leadoff home run to senior LT Cockrill, tying the game at 1-1. Delaware followed that up with three walks in the inning, a problem that would seemingly loom. 

With the bases loaded, Edwards escaped the jam without any further damage after recording a swinging strikeout to end the inning.

The Dirty Terps kept their foot on the gas their second time up to bat, retaking the lead, 3-1. Sophomore infielder Jackson Sirois recorded an RBI on his first double of the season and later scored from third after a wild pitch from Deibler. 

Edwards would surrender three-straight walks to begin the third inning before head coach Matt Swope replaced him with redshirt junior righty Brayden Ryan. Ryan would come close to escaping the jam while keeping Maryland’s lead after getting two outs, but not close enough. 

Noah Burroughs gave the Blue Hens a 6-3 lead on a two-out grand slam. Of the five runs scored in the third, three counted toward Edwards’ ERA while only two counted toward Ryan’s ERA.

A big inning from the Blue Hens would not discourage Maryland in any way though. The Terrapins would respond with back-to-back RBI doubles from Rylen Stockton and Antonio Morales, which led to the end of Deibler’s first collegiate appearance. 

The Blue Hens elected to bring in sophomore right-hander Brady Blum from the bullpen, but that didn’t stop the Dirty Terps. Maryland added four more runs in the inning with a bases-clearing double from freshman shortstop Ty Kaunas and an RBI double from redshirt freshman first baseman Ryan Costello. At the end of the third inning, the Terps led 9-6.

The fifth inning included a couple of firsts for the Terps after giving up a solo shot to Evan Bouldin in the top of the frame. Jones II hit his first home run of the season, while freshman two-sport athlete Bud Coombs hit his first NCAA home run in his first collegiate start. Maryland added three more runs in the fourth of the two home runs.

The bats on both sides started to settle down in the fifth as both teams would go scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings.

Freshman left-handed pitcher Case Gibbs took the mound to begin the seventh inning, but would only be there for four pitches. After his fourth pitch, Gibbs grabbed his left elbow and motioned to the dugout for assistance. He would immediately be removed and replaced with junior right-hander Andrew Koshy, who gave up a solo homerun to the second batter he faced.

Koshy would end with 2.1 innings, pitching the rest of the seventh, a scoreless eighth and he had the opportunity to close it out in the ninth. Things became scary for the Terps in that inning as Delaware had loaded the bases for the fifth time in the evening. Koshy would be removed only one out away from the win after two runs allowed in the ninth shrunk Maryland’s lead to three. 

With one final out remaining, the Terps handed the ball over to Jayson Torres to escape yet another jam. With the bases loaded for him for the second time of the day, into the batter’s box came Noah Burroughs. For the second time of the night, Burroughs would send a long fly ball over the outfield fence to give the Blue Hens the lead yet again.

Down to their final three outs, the Terps repeatedly found ways to get on base and give themselves a chance. Sirois and Coombs both walked to start the inning, putting the game-tying and go-ahead runs on base. However, after a fielder’s choice and a swinging strikeout, Maryland was down to its final out. Up to bat came Costello, who did his job tying the game at 14 with his second RBI of the game. 

With bases loaded in a tied ball game, Jones II came through to give the Dirty Terps the hard-fought 15-14 victory.

“That’s everything you really ever dreamed for as a kid,” said Jones II. “Waiting for a big moment like that is awesome for the team and hopefully we can use it going forward.”

“This group’s got good character regardless,” said Swope. “Got to give credit to these guys and this group for kind of sticking together and we needed that win, so it was a great comeback.”

Maryland will look to ride this momentum into the weekend as it welcomes Wagner to College Park for a three-game series. The series begins Friday with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m. Tune in to MBN where Daniel Stein and Jack Zwirn will be on the call.