With two outs and two on in the top of the eighth, Jackson Sirois walked into the box. Trailing by four, Maryland watched as arguably its hottest hitter of late, Sirois, kept up his hot streak, smacking a double off the wall to bring Maryland’s deficit down to two.

But, Maryland (13-16, 2-8 B1G) saw another comeback fall just short against Ohio State (15-13, 5-5 B1G), losing the series opener 10-8 in Columbus on Friday.

After stranding the bases loaded in the top of the first, Maryland struck first in the top of the second.

Brayden Martin doubled to left, scoring David Mendez and bringing Bud Coombs to third. Ty Kaunas stepped up to the plate next and brought Coombs home on an infield single to give the Dirty Terps an early 2-0 lead.

The Buckeyes got both runs back right away.

Off a Kaunas error, Miles Vandenheuvel reached first base and drove in two unearned runs for Ohio State, scoring both Maddix Simpson and Dave Harvey. Jacob Parr, who advanced to third on the play, ultimately got stranded by Evan Smith.

Maryland took back the lead in the top of the fourth.

With Martin on third, Kaunas drove in his second run of the day with a sacrifice fly to left.

That play spelled the end of Buckeyes’ starter, Gavin Kuzniewski. Ohio State’s sophomore finished his outing with three runs on five hits with three walks, coming back to his usual numbers after a stellar performance against Minnesota his last time on the mound for the Buckeyes.

After the Terps failed to convert with the bases loaded in the top of the fifth against reliever Ryan Zamora, the Buckeyes would take their first lead of the evening in the bottom half of the inning.

Harvey initially tied the game on a productive groundout, bringing Henry Kaczmar around the bases. Right after Harvey, Lee Ellis knocked a double off the centerfield wall to bring home Mason Eckelman and give Ohio State a 4-3 lead.

The Buckeyes picked up another run in the sixth.

Kaczmar doubled to right-center field, scoring Vandenheuvel from third, but Ohio State got greedy and had Alex Bemis thrown out at the plate to keep it as a one-run play.

That fifth run finished off the day for Evan Smith. Maryland’s lefty turned in one of his best starts of 2026 in his first NCAA Friday night start. He gave up five runs, with only three earned, on seven hits and two walks with four K’s in 5.2 innings of work.

Cristofer Cespedes locked down the rest of the sixth inning, but didn’t have the same luck in the seventh.

With two runners on base, Simpson hit his first home run of 2026, the first home run surrendered by Cespedes this season too, to break open the game for Ohio State. The Buckeyes tacked on a couple more runs on a one-run triple and an RBI single.

On the offensive side, the Terps couldn’t solve Zamora.

Ohio State’s first relief arm ended up with the most innings of any Buckeye pitcher. Zamora threw 3.2 shutout innings against Maryland, striking out two Terps and holding the offense to just one hit. He was ultimately liable for two earned runs after his exit, but zero runs scored while Zamora stood on the mound. To Maryland’s delight, Ohio State returned to the bullpen in the top of the eighth.

The Terps took advantage the moment Zamora left the mound.

With two runners on, Maryland loaded the bases when Nick Sawyer plunked Ryan Costello with a fastball. Jordan Crosland came up next, and he cleared the bases with a double down the left field line, bringing the Terps within four.

Maryland didn’t stop there, as Sirois’ double gave the Terps even more hope entering the ninth.

The Terps threatened again in the ninth.

Maryland had the top of the order set to hit in the ninth inning, and Martin led off with a double. But the Terps got aggressive, telling Martin to run on Kaunas’ flyout. Ohio State was ready, nailing Martin at third base to take the Terps’ lone runner off the basepath. As the next hitter, Ryan Costello ended the game with a groundout.

Maryland, still hunting for its first Big Ten series win, returns for Game 2 tomorrow. Ryan Martin has the call for MBN with first pitch at 3 p.m.