Right-hander Kevin Mooney throws a pitch during the Terps’ 3-0 win over James Madison at Bob “Turtle” Smith Field on April 1, 2015.

Terrapins baseball right-hander Kevin Mooney is the school career saves record-holder, but he’s been adapting to a different role as a starter over the past few weeks.

The Terps’ starting rotation has struggled all season, and searching for answers, coach John Szefc turned to Mooney last week to start a midweek game. He’ll make his third start of the season this weekend, Szefc said.

When Mooney moved into the weekend starting rotation, left-hander Alex Robinson assumed Mooney’s former role as closer. The two juniors’ ability to handle their restructured duties will play a crucial role this weekend when the No. 19 Terps face No. 25 Iowa in a three-game series at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium.

“Our starting pitching has been kind of up and down,” Szefc said. “[Mooney] has enough stuff to start.”

While Mooney started the season as the Terps’ closer, he’s notched three saves, one more than Robinson, this campaign. Mooney was out for more than three weeks with a rhomboid muscle injury, and during his absence, Robinson began to assume the closer role.

Robinson notched his first save exactly two weeks after Mooney got hurt, in an 11-9 win over UNC-Wilmington on March 8. A week later, Robinson, who hasn’t allowed an earned run in 14 innings this season, pitched the final inning in a 5-0 win over Princeton.

“He got an opportunity,” Szefc said. “If Mooney was there maybe he wouldn’t have gotten the same opportunity. … It’s made our bullpen better.”

When Mooney returned from injury, he briefly stepped back into the closer role and broke the saves record in the process. But 15 days after his return, Mooney started the fifth game of his career and his first game in more than a year.

A few days before his first start, in the series finale against Michigan, pitching coach Jimmy Belanger mentioned the possibility of Mooney starting. And a day or two before the game against James Madison, Szefc called Mooney and made sure the Forest Hill native was comfortable with a move into the starting rotation.

“You can’t just tell a guy to do something,” Szefc said. “If he’s not comfortable with it mentally, you probably don’t do it.”

The Terps wanted to ease Mooney into a starting role, so in his first start — a 3-0 win over James Madison on April 1 — he was on a 40-pitch count. And Mooney is still developing that arm strength. He was on a 60-pitch count in his second start, Mooney said. This weekend against the Hawkeyes, Mooney expects he’ll be pulled after 70 to 75 pitches.

“They’re going to build me up slowly,” Mooney said. “Get my arm strength to where it can be to be able to throw four, or five or six innings with full speed without risking an injury.”

In Mooney’s first start, Robinson notched his second save of the season. The junior, who said his fastball is consistently in the 95 to 97 mph range, worked on improving his mechanics this offseason, part of a three-year process.

Robinson entered college with a high leg kick in his windup, one he compared to former major leaguer Dontrelle Willis. He eliminated that prior to his sophomore season and improved his throwing motion this offseason.

“I’ve always thrown pretty hard,” Robinson said. “Every year, I’ve just seemed to get stronger and fix my mechanics.”

Robinson’s shutdown performances have highlighted a dominant bullpen, a unit Szefc called the strength of the team earlier in the season.

Now, Szefc hopes Mooney can stabilize the struggling starting rotation.

“Either way, he’s a quality arm for us, in that role or at the end,” Szefc said. “We’ve just been trying to piece some things together.”

TERPS NOTE: Center fielder LaMonte Wade practiced yesterday for the first time since breaking his hamate bone on March 7, Szefc said. Wade’s cast is off, and he can play defense and run the bases, Szefc said. The third-year coach hopes Wade will return to the lineup in five to six days.