Terrapins baseball right fielder Madison Nickens looked at the Terps’ dugout, pumped his fists and let out a loud scream. Representing the tying run, Nickens had begun the ninth inning by reaching base on a hit by pitch.

So the dugout responded to the outpouring of emotions from the junior. With rally caps on, they screamed back at him in response and several players jumped up and down. An inning later those same teammates piled atop of Nickens after his walk-off single.

Nickens was at the center of the Terps’ 2-1 comeback victory Friday in Game 2 of a doubleheader against Ohio State at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium. After reaching base in the ninth, he came around to score. In the 10th, he produced the Terps’ second hit of the game and drove in the winning run.

The Terps, who are two games over .500 for the first time this season, won both contests Friday and will go for the series sweep Sunday.

“I was trying to get something going,” Nickens said. “We were so cold all game. We took some bad swings. They cracked under the pressure. That’s what you got to do, keep the pressure on them.”

In a game dominated by pitchers, the Terps didn’t produce a hit through nine innings. In the ninth, Nickens advanced to second and then third before scoring on an error.

An inning later, center fielder Zach Jancarski recorded the Terps’ first hit of the contest. When he reached first, he jumped and threw his fist into the air. That’s when Nickens stepped to the plate with a sea of “Let’s go Maddy!” screams from the dugout.

Nickens connected for a single, and the dugout emptied. They greeted Jancarski at home plate as he smashed his helmet on the ground. They then ran over to Nickens and dog piled him near second base.

Nickens said he was initially looking for a fastball from right-hander Yianni Pavlopoulos. But after Pavlopoulos threw a curveball on the pitch before his walk-off RBI, Nickens was prepared for another curveball. He got it.

“I knew if I got a ball through the infield, we were going to win that game,” Nickens said. “That was the goal. Getting my foot down, see something and put it through a hole, and I knew [Jancarski] was going to score.”

Through six innings, though, the game was scoreless as Terps right-hander Brian Shaffer and Ohio State left-hander John Havird were dealing.

In the first game of the doubleheader, right-hander Taylor Bloom, making his first Friday start, threw a scoreless complete game in 90 pitches to lead coach John Szefc’s squad (17-15, 3-2 Big Ten) to a 3-0 win. Shaffer, who’s thrown two complete games in under 100 pitches this season, continued Bloom’s momentum on the mound, giving up one run off five hits in seven innings.

“Me and Shaffer, we always seem to one-up each other,” Bloom said. “It’s a fun game. Me and him are best friends.”

But in the seventh, the Buckeyes (19-10-1, 2-3) broke through.

Shaffer hit Ohio State third baseman Nick Sergakis with a pitch. After Sergakis stole for second, catcher Jalen Washington singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Designated hitter Brady Cherry then hit a pop fly to score Sergakis.

The Terps bullpen, which Szefc said has improved after struggling to start the year, shut down the Buckeyes when Shaffer exited after seven innings. The offense took advantage of that stellar pitching.

The Terps were able to stay composed late in the contest because of they faced a tough non-conference earlier this season, Szefc said. Bloom said the Terps’ attitude has gotten better throughout the season as they’ve improved, and he hadn’t seen his team display as much energy as they did late in the game Friday.

When Nickens stepped to the plate in the 10th, he took a deep breath, something Szefc has preached to the 6-foot-2, 210-pound outfielder since he transferred from LSU Eunice this offseason.

That allowed him to stay calm and as Bloom described, “Put the team on his back.”

“After the course of a successful baseball season, a lot of teams can look back at a day or two days and say ‘Hey man, we grew up, we turned the corner or we became something on that day,'” Szefc said. “We’ve been waiting for a day like this for a long time.

“We just figured out a way. Successful teams can do that.”