Stuck in the midst of a team-wide offensive slump, Ryan Costello looked to give the Terps back some of their early inning magic and stepped up to the plate to lead off the top of the seventh inning.

Maryland’s first baseman stared down Delaware pitcher Nick Bilotto and clobbered his team-leading seventh home run of 2026 to break up Bilotto’s impressive run where he retired eight consecutive Terps.

Maryland (8-4) never looked back and polished off the season series sweep over Delaware (5-8) with a 7-3 win to hand the Blue Hens their first home loss of 2026 on Wednesday in Newark.

That aforementioned early inning magic resulted in two first inning runs for the Dirty Terps.

Maryland loaded the bases against Delaware starter Elias Conway after he hit two Terps hitters and walked another. With the bases loaded, Conway still couldn’t control his pitches and walked Rylen Stockton to plate Maryland’s first run of the evening, scoring Brayden Martin from third.

Paul Jones II followed up with a sacrifice fly to score David Mendez and extend Maryland’s early lead.

On the pitcher side, the Dirty Terps used Landon Edwards as an opener and he threw two scoreless innings. Edwards allowed just one hit, two walks and struck out two Blue Hens in his two innings.

The first pitching change came in the top of the third when Matt Swope brought Brayden Ryan out of Maryland’s bullpen. Ryan struggled through his first few hitters, walking the leadoff man then surrendering back-to-back singles to load the bases.

After Ryan earned his first out, Jeremy Wolf came to the plate and drove in all three base runners with a triple to put Delaware on top, 3-2. Ryan steadied himself and escaped the inning with no further damage, but the Blue Hens had the lead.

But the Dirty Terps immediately earned all three runs back.

With runners on second and third, Mendez poked a single into the outfield grass and brought both runners home to put Maryland up 4-3. Since Mendez advanced to second base on the relay throw, he stood in scoring position when Costello stepped up to the plate after him.

Costello also delivered, hitting his own RBI single to bring Mendez around the bases and restore Maryland’s two-run advantage.

From there, it became a pitcher’s duel.

While Bilotto shut down the Maryland offense, the Terps used a combination of Andrew Koshy, Ryan Bailey and Jayson Torres to stifle Delaware.

The trio combined to throw five shutout innings, punching out three Blue Hen hitters along the way. Koshy ultimately earned the win, escaping multi-runner jams in each of his two innings.

Following the Costello home run to shift the tides, Maryland added one more insurance run in the ninth, a Jordan Crosland sacrifice fly.

Cristofer Cespedes closed out the win with a productive ninth inning, making it five in a row for the Dirty Terps.

Maryland looks to keep the vibes high in its weekend series at Troy. Daniel Stein has coverage for MBN all weekend. Game one is Friday with first pitch at 7 p.m.