After four straight losses, including three in a row by one run, Maryland’s offense said “enough” and left no doubt in a blowout win Saturday over High Point.

The Terps plated eight runs in the first three innings and cruised the rest of the way behind six stellar innings from Taylor Bloom en route to a 9-2 win in the regular season finale at Coy O. Williard Stadium in High Point, N.C.

Maryland (34-19) scored just one run combined in the opening three innings on Thursday and Friday, but equaled that total within two batters Saturday. Leadoff hitter Brandon Gum tripled off the right-field wall to open the game and AJ Lee followed with an RBI groundout to give the Terps a lead they would not relinquish.

That single run is all Maryland got in the first, but in the second inning, the Terps offense broke the game open. With one out, Kevin Smith roped a double to the wall in left-center, his ninth two-bagger of the year. A pair of singles from Madison Nickens and Justin Morris followed, driving in two runs. Later in the inning, Marty Costes chopped a ground ball down the left-field line for a double that scored two more and extended the lead to 5-0.

The Terps poured it on in the third, plating three more runs on two hits, with help from two High Point errors. Will Watson led off with a single and stole second. After stealing, however, he had to leave the game with an injury and Pat Hisle ran for him.

Hisle scored on a single from Smith and Smith came around to score for the second time when Madison Nickens tripled deep to right field. It was Nickens’ second triple of the season and it turned into another run when a relay throw to the infield got past everyone, allowing the senior outfielder to score. When the dust settled Maryland held a commanding 8-0 lead.

While the Terps were piling up runs, Taylor Bloom was befuddling the Panthers (29-21) and shutting down any thoughts of a comeback. The right-hander struck out the side in the second and didn’t allow a runner to reach second base until there were two outs in the fifth inning.

He eventually tossed six innings, allowing just two runs and striking out three without issuing a walk, before ceding the mound to Tayler Stiles in the seventh. Bloom picked up the win to improve to 6-2 on the season, while High Point starter Trevor Holloway took the loss and dropped to 3-6.

The Terps used a balanced offense to put nine runs on the board, as every starter had a hit except for Watson, who walked once in two plate appearances. The bottom of the order in particular did a lot of damage as hitters Nos. 7-9, Smith, Nickens and Morris, each had at least two hits and drove in four runs combined.

Gum, Costes, and Nick Dunn each reached base three times, including three hits for Gum, while AJ Lee went 1-for-6, extending his career-long hit streak to 11 games.

High Point tallied 12 hits, but left 10 runners on base. Hunter Lee and Zach Vandergrift each had multi-hit afternoons for the Panthers.

Stiles pitched three shutout innings to close out the game for the Terps, striking out six and lowering his ERA to 3.72. He picked up his first save of the season in the process.

Fans came to Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium Sunday expecting to see the final nine innings of the Terps’ home slate. Maryland gave them 11, but couldn’t pull out a win.

The Terps scored five runs in the fifth inning, but Alex Erro tallied four hits and homered to left-center in the 11th to lead Northwestern to a 6-5 series-clinching win in College Park.

Erro’s drive in the 11th came on a 3-1 pitch against left-hander Andrew Miller. It was the freshman’s fourth homer of the season and it sent Miller to his second loss of the season, dropping his record to 2-2.

Despite the loss, right-fielder Marty Costes said he enjoyed the atmosphere at the game.

“I thought today was a really fun day, with the [Senior Day] ceremonies and everything,” the sophomore said. “The ballpark was jumping.”

Four scoreless innings to open the game gave way to a flurry of action in the fifth. The Wildcats scored twice in the top half before Maryland’s big inning in the bottom half.

The Terps (33-17, 15-9 in the Big Ten) batted around in that frame, collecting four hits and getting help from a pair of Northwestern errors. The inning started innocently enough with Madison Nickens getting thrown out after a failed attempt at a bunt hit.

The rally started with a walk to catcher Justin Morris, the first of five straight Terps to reach in the inning. Northwestern had a chance to stymie the uprising when Zach Jancarski grounded to shortstop, but the throw to second for the force went into right field, putting two on with one out.

Three straight singles followed, plating a pair of runs to even the score at 2-2. The third of those hits was a long fly ball to right field off the bat of Nick Dunn that backed Northwestern’s Ben Dickey up to the wall. He got a glove on it, but couldn’t pull it in, allowing Dunn to reach, although the runners could only advance one base because they had to see if the ball was caught.

Dunn later scored the fifth run of the inning when AJ Lee bounced a single up the middle. Earlier in the at-bat, Costes, who had singled, stole third and came around to score when the throw to third went into left field.

“We practice dirt ball reads,” said Costes of his decision to try to take third on the play. “It just kicked a little to the left of the plate and I just became aggressive. Good things happen, so I was fortunate.”

Trailing 5-2, the Wildcats wouldn’t concede, and began the comeback in the sixth. A strange play scored one run. With Matt Hopfner on first and Joe Hoscheit on third, starter Taylor Bloom picked Hopfner off first. The Wildcat senior had the presence of mind of mind to get in a rundown, allowing Hoscheit to break for home. The throw went there and it was late, allowing Northwestern to get a run and Hopfner to reach third safely. A sacrifice fly off the bat of Connor Lind brought in Northwestern’s fourth run, closing the gap to one.

The Wildcats (21-28, 10-11) evened the score in the eighth. Ryan Selmer had relieved Bloom in the seventh and got through that frame. In the next one, however, he surrendered a single to Hopfner and a double off the right-field wall to Lind that brought Hopfner in with the tying run.

“Hats off to them, they got hits right when they needed them” Costes said of Northwestern. “It took a lot of guts for them [to come back].”

Despite allowing the tying run across, Selmer was the MVP on the mound for the Terps, as he held Northwestern to one run in four innings, while saving a depleted bullpen from further taxation. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the ninth, and survived the 10th, before ceding to Miller for the 11th.

Maryland did not have an extra-base hit in the game. Costes and Brandon Gum each had a pair of singles, while Costes’ RBI single inched him in front of Kevin Smith for the team RBI lead. It was the sophomore’s 37th run knocked in. Lee also had two singles, giving him seven hits in the series and raising his season average to .336, second on the team.

“We left a lot of guys on base too, we had our opportunities,” head coach John Szefc said of his team, which left nine runners stranded. “We have opportunities, we have to take advantage of them. They did, we didn’t.”

The game completes the Big Ten and home schedules for Maryland. The Terps finished 21-3 at home, but lost their final three conference series.

Zach Jancarski said after the game the team is not down on itself and it feels it’s ready to break out again.

“I think it takes one inning with this team,” the leadoff hitter said. “We go out our next game and put up a three-spot in the first, it’s like ‘Boom’ it’s back and no one’s even thinking about anything else. This team is very good and we know we’re very good.

“I promise you not one of our guys after this is going to be going into next weekend like, ‘Oh we’re in a slump right now.’ It’s just like, ‘Let’s go.’ Like we’re ready to throw down right now if we could.”

Ryan Hill struck out the first Northwestern hitter in the fifth inning. Nine hitters later, there was still one out in the inning.

Three Maryland pitchers combined to surrender five hits and four free passes in the inning, allowing Northwestern (20-28, 9-11 in the Big Ten) to plate seven runs and break open what had been a tight game.

A two-run triple for the Wildcats’ Joe Hoscheit opened the scoring in the inning and was one of three hits for the left-fielder as he led Northwestern to a 11-3 win Saturday at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium in College Park.

Maryland starter Tyler Blohm got through the first two innings unscathed, but it was a rough day after that for the Terps’ pitching staff. With one out in the third, No. 9 hitter Jack Paciorek ripped a home run over the high wall in center field to open the scoring. The catcher entered the game hitting just .134 and it was his first career home run.

The Terps (33-16, 15-8) briefly went in front in the bottom of the inning. Catcher Justin Morris led off the inning and matched his counterpart Paciorek with a home run to even the score at 1. Later in the inning, Brandon Gum singled and came in to score on a ground ball Marty Costes chopped to shortstop. It was Costes’ 36th RBI of the season, tying him with Kevin Smith for the team lead.

Maryland went hitless over the next four innings, though, while Northwestern’s offense exploded. Two runs came in in the fourth off Blohm, ending his day with the Wildcats in front 3-2. It was the second straight start the freshman hasn’t been at his best as he’s given up seven earned runs in 6.2 innings over those two appearances.

Hill opened the fifth with a strikeout of Paciorek, but it would be the only out he’d record. The next five hitters reached against the junior right-hander, including Hoscheit’s triple, which banged off the “Regional Champions” sign on the right-center field wall.

Jamal Wade relieved Hill, but he couldn’t stop the bleeding as he surrendered a single and three walks before exiting without having gotten an out. Jared Price became the third Maryland hurler in the inning and finished the frame, but not before allowing a fielder’s choice that plated the seventh run to make it 10-2. 12 Northwestern batters came to the plate in the inning and all nine players in the lineup reached base at least once.

Wildcat starter Hank Christie made sure the outcome was never in doubt as he held Maryland to just six hits in eight innings, striking out three and walking one. He picked up the win to move to 4-4 on the season. Blohm took the loss to drop to 8-5; he’s gotten a decision in each of the 13 starts he’s made this season.

Hoscheit was the hitting star for the Wildcats, going 3-for-5 with two RBI and scoring a pair of runs. He’s working on an eight-game hit streak. Connor Lind, Paciorek, and Jake Schieber also drove in two runs each for the Wildcats.

One bright spot for the Terps was the Hunter Parsons, who entered the game in the seventh and pitched 2.1 innings. He retired the first six hitters he faced, striking out four of them, before struggling in the ninth and ceding the final two outs to Cameron Enck.

Nick Dunn completed the scoring for Maryland with his third home run of the season, pulling a line drive off a right-field light pole in the eighth inning.

The loss was just Maryland’s second at home this season, running its record to 20-2 at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium. It sets up a series rubber match Sunday on the Terps’ Senior Day.

It’s tough to keep up with Brian Shaffer.

Northwestern pitcher Cooper Wetherbee tried on Friday and matched zeroes with the Maryland ace for four innings, but the Terps offense broke through and Shaffer just kept rolling along with another in a string of shutdown performances.

The junior right-hander Shaffer threw eight innings of one-run ball, striking out a eight, and giving up just six hits to lead the Terps to a series-opening 7-1 win over Northwestern Friday at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium in College Park.

“[Shaffer] holds them at bay and gives our guys time to get on the board,” head coach John Szefc said. “That’s what responsible Friday night starters do. [Mike] Shawaryn did it for a long time, Jake Stinnett did it here, Jimmy Reed did it here. We’ve been really fortunate to have what I would call very responsible Friday night starters. Every college program needs one.”

It was Shaffer’s seventh win of the season—against two losses—and the 20th of his career, tying him with John Rayne for second on the all-time Maryland list behind only Mike Shawaryn, who finished his collegiate career with 30 victories. Shaffer lowered his Big Ten-leading ERA to a minuscule 1.72 and added to the single-season career-high in strikeouts he set last week against Illinois. The Pylesville native has punched out 91 hitters this season.

Wetherbee was sharp to open the game and the two teams were locked in a scoreless tie through four innings. Shaffer and Wetherbee needed just 89 combined pitches as they zipped through those first four frames.

“They’re throwing who they think is their best guy out there,” Szefc said of Friday games. “Regardless of how good he is, he’s going to give them a good start and he’s going to make it difficult for your team to score runs. That’s the typical Friday night right there for four innings.”

In the fifth, though, Maryland’s offense woke up. AJ Lee singled to left center and Kevin Smith followed with a grounder to short that got through for another hit. Later in the inning, Zach Jancarski roped a single to left to score the first run of the game, plating Lee. Then, facing Brandon Gum, Wetherbee let loose a wild pitch that allowed Smith to scamper home, making it 2-0.

After Northwestern (19-28, 8-11 in the Big Ten) went quietly in the top of the sixth, the Terps broke the game open in the bottom half. It didn’t look like they would after Nick Dunn got picked off second with one out, leaving just Will Watson on first with two away. But Watson stole second and then came home on another hit for Lee, his third of the day.

Smith was up next and, after hitting a long, loud foul ball down the left field line, deposited a 3-2 pitch far over the wall in left-center for his ninth homer of the season. He knew the blast, which put his team in front 5-0, was gone off the bat and began trotting right out of the batter’s box.

Video of Smith’s home run, courtesy of @crogers_95 pic.twitter.com/5eM4YH31Z7

— MD Baseball Network (@mdbaseballnet) May 12, 2017

The home run also leapfrogged Smith past Marty Costes and into the team lead with 35 RBIs on the season. Costes pulled even in the seventh when he drove a single to right to make it 6-0.

“We’ve talked about it [the RBI lead] a few times, I mean it’s all fun and games,” Smith said. “When he gets he’ll point over to me to let me know and vice-versa. So, you know, it’s fun just because a lot of them come with two outs or big hits, so RBIs are always fun to get. It’s kind of a tribute to all the guys getting on in front of you.”

Smith retook the team RBI lead in the eighth when he hit what looked like a deep fly to left. The ball kept carrying and eventually landed beyond the wall just to the right of the sign marking the Terps’ trips to the NCAA Super Regionals. It was his 10th home run of the season, extending a career-high he’d set earlier in the game.

“It was a hanging slider, maybe a little in,” Smith said of the pitch he hit for his second home run. “I was out in front a little bit, but I got a little barrel on it.”

With Lee, who went 3-4 with an RBI single, Smith, who now leads the team in home runs and RBIs, hitting in the second half of the lineup, respectively, the Terps’ lineup is longer than most other teams.

“I think we’re dangerous because we can score in any inning,” Smith. “You can’t get through our first three batters and then cruise through the rest of our lineup until you get back to the top. We take pride in that, we don’t care where we hit in the order, we take pride in trying to score wherever we are and contribute to the team.”

Shaffer gave up his only run in the eighth when pinch-hitter Grant Peikert drove a double off the wall in left and Connor Lind scored from first. Shaffer needed just 89 pitches to get through eight innings.

Szefc said Shaffer could have gone back out to pitch the ninth if needed.

“He would have been fine [if he had pitched the ninth], but anytime you can protect an arm like that you try to protect him as much as you can,” Szefc said. “I’d like to think our bullpen can get three outs with a six-run lead at home in the ninth and they did.”

Outside of Smith, Maryland’s offensive star was Lee, who went 3-for-4 and scored twice. He’s now hitting .326 for the season, the third-best mark on the team.

“I think a lot of it was just taking the borderline pitches that are balls, taking the ball below the knee that a lot of people like to swing at and just getting into hitters’ counts,” Lee said. “And then you can really work in your approach and get into 2-0 counts and hit balls hard.”

Jancarski and Costes tallied multi-hit games, as well.

The win was Maryland’s 20th at home this season, running the Terps’ record at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium to 20-1, good for the best home winning percentage in the country. It was also the team’s 15th conference victory, equaling a program record for conference wins in a single-season last achieved in 2013.

John Murphy finished the game for Maryland (33-15, 15-7), pitching a scoreless, hitless ninth. He lowered his ERA to 1.33 in 20.1 innings.

Wetherbee worked six innings for the Wildcats, allowing five runs on eight hits. He only walked one, but didn’t strike out anyone. He falls to 2-3 on the season.

After a pair of blowouts on Saturday, Maryland and Indiana decided to treat those who braved the afternoon rain to some drama in the series finale.

Craig Dedelow launched two home runs, including a seventh inning grand slam, to provide the winning margin in a series-clinching 6-3 victory Sunday at Bart Kaufman Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. The game was called in the eighth inning because Maryland had to catch a plane back to College Park.

Indiana (24-17-2, 10-7-1 Big Ten) entered the seventh inning trailing 3-2 and Maryland reliever Ryan Selmer got two quick outs on just six pitches. With rain falling steadily, though, Tony Butler singled and Matt Lloyd doubled to put two on. The Terps elected to intentionally walk cleanup hitter Luke Miller to get to Dedelow. The center-fielder cleared the bases with an homer to left, his 11th of the season, a career-high for the two-time all-Big Ten performer.

Before Logan Sowers could bat following Dedelow’s home run, lightning flashed across the sky, putting the game into an immediate delay. Play didn’t resume until 15 minutes before Maryland’s 2:35 travel curfew, giving the Terps just three outs to play with. They went quietly in the eighth against IU closer Lloyd, who picked up the save.

After piling up 13 hits in a 9-2 win Saturday night, Maryland (29-13, 13-5) picked up right where it left off in the first inning of Sunday’s game. Zach Jancarski continued his torrid hitting with  a double to the wall in left-center. He later came around to score on a line drive off the bat of Nick Dunn. Dunn was robbed of what would usually have been a hit because Marty Costes, who had walked, got a bad jump off first and was forced out at second on a rare 9-6 fielder’s choice.

Dedelow responded for Indiana in the bottom of the second. The junior ripped a home run to right field off the light post rising out of the grass beyond the wall.

Maryland went ahead again in the fourth when Danny Maynard, getting his second straight start behind the plate, singled and Kevin Smith followed with a two-run blast. The shortstop’s eighth home run of the season was not cheap, traveling far over the left field wall and putting the Terps in front 3-1.

Maryland starter Taylor Bloom made that lead stand up through the sixth. The junior right-hander looked sharp for the third start in a row, throwing an even 100 pitches and striking out seven. He made just two mistakes, on Dedelow’s home run and on a solo shot given up to freshman Jeremy Houston in the fifth. It was the first home run of Houston’s career at Indiana.

Over his last three starts, Bloom has looked much more like the pitcher that was fourth on the Big Ten’s ERA list last season. He has a 2.61 ERA in 20.2 innings over those three outings, striking out 19 and walking just three.

Selmer, who pitched 2.2 scoreless innings on Saturday, looked sharp again before running into trouble with two out. The grand slam raised his ERA by nearly 1.5 runs to 2.70 and dropped his record to 2-1.

Maryland tallied nine hits, with Costes, Smith and Jancarski each chipping in two. Maynard was on base three times with a single and two walks.

With this series loss, the Terps continue to struggle comparatively on the road. Maryland has won just one true road series, a sweep of Rutgers in early April. The Terps fall to below .500 (11-12) away from home despite a dominant 18-1 mark at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium.

In the first game of the day Saturday, Indiana took a lead early and never looked back.

Maryland flipped the script in the second game and evened the series.

The Terps clubbed three home runs and Tyler Blohm worked his way through 6.1 innings to lead the Terps to a 9-2 win in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader at Bart Kaufman Stadium, setting up a Sunday rubber match.

The Terrapins (29-12, 13-4 Big Ten) took their first lead of the series in the top of the first. An error, a Marty Costes single, and passed ball put runners on second and third for Nick Dunn. The second baseman came through, hitting a sacrifice fly to left to put his team in front 1-0.

Maryland added on in the third when Costes ripped a long home run over the bullpen in left field. Brandon Gum was on first for Costes’ blast, putting the Terps ahead 3-0. It was the sophomore’s team-leading ninth home run of the season. Costes went 3-for-4, one of four Terrapins with multiple hits, and raised his average to .352.

Indiana (23-17-2, 9-7-1) closed the gap with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third, but, undeterred, Maryland opened it up again in the fifth. AJ Lee led off against Indiana starter Brian Hobbie and battled through a seven-pitch at-bat before launching a home run in almost the same place as Costes’ shot. It was Lee’s fifth of the season as he continues to produce from the No. 9 spot in the order.

Two innings later, the hitter at the other end of the lineup, leadoff man Zach Jancarski, became the third to send a ball over the same bullpen in left field, extending the Terrapins’ lead to 6-2. After having a 14-game hitting streak snapped in the first game, the junior center-fielder bounced back with a 2-for-4 performance that also saw him score two runs.

While Maryland was putting on a hitting display, Blohm was continuing his stellar work as the Saturday starter. In three starts since moving to the weekend’s middle game, the freshman has pitched to a 1.99 ERA in 18.1 innings. Against Indiana, he allowed two runs while striking out five and walking two. Maryland’s big offensive game made him the winner, his Big Ten-leading eighth victory of the season. He’s gotten a decision in all 11 of his starts this season.

The Terps put the game on ice in the top of the eighth with three consecutive hits to open the inning, including a two-run single for catcher Danny Maynard. The sophomore has 16 RBIs in just 14 starts this season.

Maryland racked up 13 hits after being held in check for most of the first game. Most of the damage came from the top of the order. The 1-4 hitters in the lineup all had at least two hits and went a combined 9-for-17 with six runs scored.

With the game in hand, Ryan Selmer relieved Blohm in the seventh and pitched an efficient 2.2 innings, retiring eight straight hitters on just 23 pitches. His ERA dropped to a minuscule 1.38, the second-lowest on the team behind Andrew Miller’s 1.02 mark.

Matt Gorski was the only Hoosier that had any consistent success with the bat, going 2-for-3 with his fourth home run of the season in the third.

It took over 24 hours, but Maryland and Indiana finally completed the opening game of their three-game weekend series.

A thunderstorm Friday forced a suspension of the game until Saturday afternoon. When it finally restarted, Indiana wasted no time in taking control.

The Hoosiers scored six runs combined in the third and fourth innings, two coming on a home run from second baseman Tony Butler, en route to 9-2 victory in the series-opener at Bart Kaufman Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. The loss snapped a seven-game Maryland win streak.

The teams played the first two-and-a-half innings Friday night before lightning in the area stopped the game with the score 0-0. Maryland ace Brian Shaffer pitched two scoreless innings, but Ryan Hill relieved him Saturday afternoon and struggled.

The junior transfer from Grayson College walked the first hitter he faced and hit the second. An attempted sacrifice bunt from Butler turned into a single when he perfectly placed the bunt between Hill and third baseman AJ Lee. Later in the inning, Hill hit a second batter and walked two more to give Indiana (23-16-2, 9-6-1 Big Ten) a 3-0 lead. In all, the reliever threw 41 pitches in his only inning of work without allowing a ball out of the infield.

Hunter Parsons relieved Hill in the fourth, but couldn’t stem the tide. Left-fielder Alex Krupa started with a one-out double to right and Butler followed with his blast to left. It was the second home run of the season for the junior, who is hitting .357 this season with runners in scoring position.

Two more doubles in the inning, including an RBI two-bagger from Craig Dedelow, extended the Maryland deficit to 6-0. Parsons made it through the fifth, but in the sixth, free passes bit the Terps (28-12, 12-4) again. The right-hander walked Butler and Matt Lloyd back-to-back, bringing third baseman Luke Miller to the plate. Miller smacked a hanging breaking ball way over the wall in left for a three-run homer. It was his ninth of the season and Indiana’s 47th, the most in the Big Ten.

While Indiana was piling up runs, the Hoosiers’ Cal Krueger was holding Maryland comeback efforts at bay. The Terrapins scored a pair of runs in the fifth, including one on a ringing triple off the center field wall from Kevin Smith, but Krueger was able to limit further damage. The right-hander retired 13 in a row after Smith’s triple and pitched all six innings on Saturday afternoon. He allowed four hits and struck out five without a walk, picking up the win to run his record to 2-1 in 18 appearances this season.

Miller and Butler were the hitting stars for Indiana, going a combined 7-for-9 with a home run each and five runs scored.

No Indiana hitter had more than one hit, and leadoff hitter Zach Jancarski didn’t have any, snapping a 14-game hit streak for the junior.

One bright spot for the Maryland pitching staff was sophomore Cameron Enck, who pitched two scoreless innings in just his fourth appearance of the season. He needed only 18 pitches to get six outs, despite allowing three hits.