FULLERTON, Calif. – Freshman Marty Costes hit two home runs and sophomore Taylor Bloom tossed a complete game as the Maryland baseball team evened the series with No. 23 Cal State Fullerton with an 8-4 win at Goodwin Field Saturday night.
The Terrapins (8-10) jumped on the Titans early and ended the evening with 14 hits. Sophomore Kevin Smith finished with three hits and three runs scored while Kevin Biondic had three hits with a solo home run.
Maryland opened the scoring in the first. Smith reached on a check swing single before advancing to second on a failed pickoff. He then scored on a Nick Cieri flair single down the left field line.
Costes came up with the big hit of the inning, crushing a 3-1 pitch over the fence in center field to give the Terps a 3-0 lead after one.
Fullerton grabbed a run in the third when Chris Hudgins took Bloom deep for a solo shot. The Terps responded in the fourth through a Smith triple and Madison Nickens sac fly.
Bloom went to work after the second, putting four straight zeros on the board. He gave up a run in the bottom half of the sixth, but responded with scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth.
The Terps blew the game open with a four-run seventh inning. Smith started the frame with a single to right and moved to second on a Nickens ground out. The sophomore scored when Nick Dunn drilled a triple off the wall in right field.
On the ensuing at-bat, Cieri laid down a perfect suicide squeeze to plate Dunn and make the score 6-2. Costes and Kevin Biondic then hit back-to-back home runs, with Costes' jack sailing over the scoreboard in left, to up the Terp lead to 8-2.
Bloom ran into some trouble in the ninth, but after two Fullerton runs, closed out the contest. It's the right-hander's second consecutive complete game after his nine-inning outing against Bryant last weekend. He lowered his ERA to 2.19 and has 28 strikeouts to just three walks this season.
Dunn has now reached base in all 19 games. Maryland's eight runs were the most scored against Cal State Fullerton this season. It's the fourth time this season the Terps have had at least three home runs in a game, tying its total from all of last season.
Maryland returns to action tomorrow against Cal State Fullerton at 4:00 p.m., and the game can be heard live on the Maryland Baseball Network.
– Terps –
