Freshman right-hander made his return to the starting rotation against the Mountaineers on Tuesday. Morlang ultimately struggled to find the zone early and the Dirty Terps never picked up momentum in Morgantown.

Maryland (10-6) stumbled to a 10-3 blowout at the hands of West Virginia (11-3) at Kendrick Family Ballpark on Tuesday.

Maryland trailed 2-0 entering the second inning.

In the top of the second, West Virginia would have to make an unexpected pitching change after sophomore righty David Hagen suffered an apparent injury after hitting sophomore catcher Rylen Stockton with a pitch. Hagen would only last one full inning on 27 pitches before senior right-hander Carson Estridge took the mound. In Estridge’s first inning on the mound, the Terps left two stranded in scoring position.

Morlang continued his early struggles in the second, allowing three more runs to West Virginia before head coach Matt Swope walked out to make a pitching change.

Swope elected to bring out Landon Edwards from the pen. Edwards would allow the inherited runner to score from third on an RBI single before getting out of the inning.

After Maryland went down one, two, three to begin the third, things went from bad to worse for the Terps. 

Edwards loaded the bases after getting two outs and gave up a two-run single before getting the final out. Right-handed pitcher Brayden Ryan would take over after the run-scoring hit and stop the bleeding for Maryland.

While the Mountaineers seemed like they had everything figured out on offense, the Terps did not. Maryland ended another disappointing time at bat with a double play in the fourth.

The Mountaineers continued to pour it on Maryland in the fourth. Four consecutive hits off of Ryan pushed the deficit to 10 not even halfway through the game. 

Maryland pitched its first scoreless inning in the fifth with Ryan recording the first out and right-hander Andrew Koshy recording the final two.

Following Maryland being set down in order for the second straight inning, James Gladden took over on the mound. Despite walking two, Gladden got out of the jam to secure back-to-back scoreless innings for the Terps.

While Maryland struggled to get hits all day, freshman outfielder Nate Hawton-Henley, who had been brought in to replace senior Aden Hill in center in the sixth, recorded his first career hit on a single in the eighth. 

Righty Cristofer Cespedes entered to pitch in the eighth. He too would collect a scoreless inning of relief while only allowing one hit. 

The Dirty Terps finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the ninth. 

Freshman catcher Franklin Pichardo Jr. hit his first career home run to deep left field to give Maryland its first run of the day. Down to its final out, Maryland loaded the bases for the first time of the day. The Terps would try to keep things interesting after scoring again on RBI walks from junior Brayden Martin and freshman shortstop Ty Kaunas but the third out of the inning came before the Terps could do anything else.

The Terps return to “The Bob” this Friday for their Big Ten opener versus Purdue. Tune into the first pitch scheduled for 6 P.M. where Daniel Stein and Adam Lipman will be on the call.