With two outs in the sixth inning and runners on second and third, Delaware left-hander Kevin Milley took a couple steps off the mound and toward the visitor’s dugout. He thought he had just thrown strike three.

But the home plate umpire deemed the pitch a ball, and the inning continued. Terrapins center fielder LaMonte Wade drove the next pitch past a diving first baseman for a two-run single to extend the Terps’ lead to 4-0.

Wade’s hit was the difference in the No. 21 Terps’ 5-3 win over Delaware on Tuesday afternoon at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium. The offense continued to build upon their recent success with eight hits and two home runs, and right-hander Brian Shaffer delivered another quality outing as the team claimed their fourth straight victory.

“It was huge,” coach John Szefc said of Wade’s hit. “Instead of striking out, [he] punches one through the four hole, and we’re up 4-0.”

The Terps scored two combined runs over a three-game stretch last week, but they’ve tallied at least four runs in each of their past four games. On Tuesday against the Blue Hens (18-16), the Terps (31-13) tallied their five runs on eight hits.

“We’re taking some good hacks,” said shortstop Kevin Smith, who put together a 3-for-3 performance. “Some stuff isn’t falling. If we keep being aggressive, I think we’ll be all right.”

On the hill, Shaffer tossed five scoreless frames, allowed three hits, issued no walks and struck out five in his second straight midweek start. He retired the first 10 Blue Hens he faced before he surrendered a one-out single in the fourth.

Last week, the Pylesville native pieced together another quality outing when he pitched six innings of one-run ball in the Terps’ 2-1 loss to VCU on April 21.

“It’s getting easier and easier,” Shaffer said. “Coming back from struggling a lot at the beginning of the year, it’s been great.”

In the third inning, third baseman Jose Cuas, who went 2-for-4, opened the scoring with an RBI single.

Smith extended the lead to 2-0 two innings later with a solo home run. His long ball sailed over the left-field fence moments after Wade was picked off at first.

Wade atoned for his base-running error in the sixth with his two-run single that doubled the Terps’ lead. While a Delaware coach exchanged words with the home plate umpire after the inning over the potential strike-three pitch, Szefc agreed with the call.

“It was off the plate,” Szefc said. “It was outside [Wade’s] shin guards.”

Though the Blue Hens responded with three runs in the seventh to cut the lead to one, the Terps rebounded in the eighth when Cuas launched a solo home run, his seventh of the season.

While the Terps’ starting pitching has improved lately, the offense, which entered the game leading the Big Ten with 282 runs, has struggled to score.

But after another solid performance at the plate Tuesday, Shaffer believes the lineup is easing back into its early-season form.

“They had a little rough patch,” Shaffer said. “They’re obviously getting there. The pitchers had a rough patch at the beginning, and the offense was always behind us.”