Michigan State starting pitcher JD Greeley gave up a couple of freebies in his first inning of work, hitting Jordan Crosland with a pitch and walking Bud Coombs. With two outs, he had a chance to escape, but David Mendez made sure the Terps didn’t waste their scoring opportunity in the top of the first.

Mendez extended his team-best 16-game hit streak with a towering three-run home run over the wall in left, putting Maryland on top before the Terps’ defense had to touch the field.

Maryland (21-21, 6-13 B1G) went on to record its third straight game with 16 or more runs in the 18-10 win over Michigan State (14-25, 8-14 B1G) at Jeff Ishbia Field at McLane Stadium on Friday.

The win is Maryland’s first Friday conference win of 2026. Five different Terps homered in the game.

Maryland’s offensive attack didn’t slow down in the second.

Greeley gave up another pair of freebies, walking Ty Kaunas and plunking Nate Hawton-Henley to put two runners on base for Devin Russell. Russell copied Mendez, slamming a three-run home run to the trees in left field. His fifth long ball of the season put Maryland up six and chased Greeley from his start after just one complete inning.

Bobby Crane entered the game for the Spartans and didn’t fare any better on the mound.

The lineup turned back over to Crosland, who hammered a solo home run to make it back-to-back long balls for the Dirty Terps. 

Maryland’s offense chased Crane in the third, forcing Michigan State to use its third pitcher of the game in just the third inning. New reliever Kyle Rudolph allowed one of his inherited runners to score as Brayden Martin knocked an RBI single through the right side. 

The Spartans responded in the bottom of the third.

The rain picked up in East Lansing and Michigan State strung four consecutive hits, then benefited from a Maryland error to plate four runs before recording its first out in the third. The Spartans added a fifth run in the frame on a sacrifice fly and the Terps saw their eight-run cushion suddenly shrink to three.

Coombs got one right back, cranking Maryland’s fourth homer of the night. Then Martin hit the Terps’ fifth homer of the game with a three-run shot in the fifth.

After a couple of quiet offensive innings, the Spartans roughed up Logan Hastings again in the sixth when he tried to go through the Michigan State order for a fourth time.

The Spartans recorded three straight RBI hits and, just like in the third, Maryland watched a large lead dwindle away. Michigan State ultimately tallied four runs in the sixth, bringing its deficit down to three. That inning saw the end of Hastings’ day. In his first Friday night start of the year, the Terps’ righty gave up nine runs, six earned, with seven strikeouts in 5.1 innings. All Michigan State runs were scored in two big innings for the Spartans’ offense.

Maryland’s bullpen shut down Michigan State the rest of the way to lock down the conference win. The Terps added six insurance runs in the final two innings to snuff out any potential Michigan State comeback.

Maryland returns to the field against the Spartans tomorrow when it looks to win its second Big Ten series of 2026. First pitch in East Lansing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. with Ryan Martin on the call for MBN.