Impact Of A Scholarship: Maxwell Costes

Former Maryland baseball star Maxwell Costes is living out his childhood dream. He’s playing professionally for his hometown Baltimore Orioles - the team he grew up rooting for. 

The infielder’s resume at Maryland speaks for itself. He was the 2019 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and an All-Big Ten First Team selection. He was all-conference yet again as a senior in 2022, making Third Team All-Big Ten. 

Costes’ name is also etched in the Maryland baseball record books in many different career categories. He’s No. 2 all-time in home runs (40), No. 2 in walks (116), No. 3 in RBIs (145) and No. 6 in extra-base hits (77). He was even part of the Terps 2022 Big Ten Championship team and 2021-22 NCAA Regional Finalists squads.

The Baltimore native's success allowed him to be picked up as a free agent by the Orioles in July 2022. He’s navigating through the ranks with the Orioles’ minor league affiliate teams, currently playing with its Double-A affiliate Bowie Baysox. 

Costes says he just needed an opportunity to make it all happen. 

“I'm a baseball player from an inner city. There aren't many baseball fields in Baltimore City to go practice at,” Costes said. “My brother and I grew up; we would go to empty parking lots and take those rubber balls you would see in batting cages. We would throw them against the wall and have them bounce back to us and that's how we would practice fielding.”

The opportunity came via a scholarship from the University of Maryland. Maxwell was able to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Marty, who played in the outfield for the Terps from 2016-18 and garnered a similar level of success. He was a 2018 MLB Draft selection by the Houston Astros. Marty currently plays for the Miami Marlins where he recently signed a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. 

Maxwell never overlapped with his brother Marty at Maryland but watched him play with Mom and Dad. Maryland was the only program to offer the Costes brothers a scholarship to play baseball, according to Maxwell. He added that the only college-style baseball camp he attended was one held by Maryland. 

Former Terps head coach Rob Vaughn showed a level of interest that Costes was unfamiliar with. That paired with the college’s platform athletically as a Big Ten school and academically as one of the top schools in the nation was appealing to him. 

“Maryland is the best of both worlds and it’s a Power Five school so the competition can be really good and academically all I've ever seen is how good of a school Maryland was,” Costes, who has a bachelor’s in psychology, said. “There wasn't really much else I could ask for in a higher education establishment to go to.”

Costes says his fondest memories of his time at Maryland were being a part of a program that went from a “middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team to a nationally known team.”  

The Terps finished with a .500 record after Costes’ freshman season. The next year they were on pace to finish with twice as many wins as losses before the COVID-19 Pandemic cut the season short. Maryland had become one of the hottest teams in the country by the time Costes was a junior in 2021, winning 15 of its last 18 games to spark an NCAA Tournament berth. 

Maryland then hosted its first NCAA Regional in school history when Costes was a senior in 2022. The Terps finished 48-14 and set the program record for wins in a single season. 

“Being a part of and getting to see such a steady build of how the culture changed [and] how we became more like family than friends,” Costes said. “I think it shows what kind of people we were like. We were all people who were willing to believe in a vision that was being presented to us as well as put in the work that was required to achieve and realize that vision.”

Costes says Vaughn and then assistant coach Matt Swope were the main people behind that culture change. Swope was named the program’s head coach during the offseason and awaits the beginning of his inaugural season on Feb. 16. 

“[They] were always people who gave you the idea that they really believed what they were saying,” Costes said. “A lot of coaches will tell you things just to tell you them, but Vaughn and Swope were the type of people who when they made mistakes, they held themselves accountable for that and that kind of made us trust them.” 

He added that his favorite memories of baseball at Maryland had a lot more to do with the people he was around for the journey over all the winning and personal success.

Costes says he plans on coming back to Maryland to get his master's in psychology. He also plans on giving back and helping provide the same opportunity to the program that supported him in the future.  

“I've always said give back to the community that raised you,” Costes said. “I like to believe that there are tons of other kids like me who might just need help like I needed help. I guess you could say that's a pretty cool full-circle moment if I got to do that.”