Box Score COLLEGE PARK, MD – Maryland baseball lost game two of its series against Michigan State, 5-2, at Bob "Turtle" Smith Stadium on Saturday.
Logan Koester turned in a dominant performance on the mound despite the loss.
Koester pitched a Maryland career-high 7.1 innings. He struck out four batters and allowed just six hits resulting in two earned runs. He even retired 12 batters in a row through the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
Maryland (17-6, 1-1 B1G) scored a run in the third and sixth innings. Sam Hojnar hit his fourth home run of the season in the sixth to cut the Michigan State (9-11, 1-1 B1G) lead in half, 4-2. Kevin Keister drove home the earlier run with a sacrifice fly.
Brothers Chris Hacopian and Eddie Hacopian each cracked multiple hits in the ballgame. Chris went 2-for-4 with a run and Eddie went 3-for-4 with three singles.
Andrew Johnson entered the game and pitched the remaining 1.2 innings. He struck out three batters and allowed just two hits.
Breaking Down The Action
- Michigan scored two runs to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI single and an error.
- The Spartans added two more runs in the third inning to take a 4-0 lead. Both occurred on a throwing error.
- The Terps quickly loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning with back-to-back hits by Chris Hacopian and Eddie Hacopian and a hit-by-pitch. Kevin Keister drove home C. Hacopian with a sacrifice fly for Maryland's first run of the game. Terps trailed 4-1.
- Sam Hojnar homered in the sixth inning to cut the lead in half. The Terps trailed 4-2 after his solo shot to center field.
- The Spartans added an insurance run in the eighth inning with an RBI single to take a 5-2 lead.
- The Terps got two runners on base but couldn't score any runs. They dropped game two of the series.
Swope's Take
"He's been consistent all year," head coach
Matt Swope said of Koester and his long outing on the mound. "I think we let him down, wasn't really indicative of his start, which is kind of frustrating. But again, it's huge because now we can bring everybody back in the bullpen tomorrow and get our main guys going and hopefully it's in a situation to win."
Numbers To Know
- 1: Luke Zeisloft made his first start of the season.
- 7.1: Logan Koester pitched a Maryland career-high 7.1 innings in the game.
- 11: Chris Hacopian notched his 11th career multi-hit game.
- 12: Koester retired 12 straight batters in the game.
- 16: Hacopian has a 16-game on-base streak.
- 14: Sam Hojnar hit his 14th career home run.
- 33: Eddie Hacopian had his 33rd career multi-hit game.
Up Next
- Maryland is back in action at Bob "Turtle" Smith Stadium for game three of its series with Michigan State tomorrow, March 24 at 1 pm. The game will be streamed on Big Ten Plus and Maryland Baseball Network.
