When Maryland baseball starter Tyler Blohm allowed six runs in just four innings last weekend against No. 18 East Carolina, he couldn’t locate his breaking ball. He walked five batters in that 18-4 shellacking.
But on Saturday against Stetson, the sophomore southpaw controlled his curveball from the outset, leading to a bounceback outing and 6-1 Terps victory.
Blohm went eight innings, giving up just one unearned run and striking out a career-best 12 hitters. Ten of those whiffs came on the curveball, and he displayed enough confidence with the pitch to lead-off at-bats with it as the game progressed.
“I didn’t have [the curveball] any of these starts,” Blohm said. “I just threw it a ton in the midweek and just built the confidence back up for it. Held it a little bit looser in my hand and it worked out today. Once I saw it in the first inning and stuff, I just rode on that confidence for the rest of the game.”
Behind Blohm, Maryland’s reshuffled lineup delivered sufficient support. Third baseman Tommy Gardiner led off in place of struggling center fielder Zach Jancarski, who went 2-for-3 from the sixth spot in the order.
With runners on the corners and two outs in the third, right fielder Marty Costes continued his recent resurgence at the plate. Hitting cleanup after a five-game hitting streak highlighted by his first home run since Feb. 18 on Wednesday, he scored shortstop AJ Lee with an infield single to give the Terps the lead with Blohm (3-2, 3.82 ERA) dealing.
“It’s good to see [Costes] get back to his usual self,” Blohm said. “He’s getting real confident, and it’s awesome to see. When he’s on, it’s pretty scary.”
Costes’ single led Stetson (19-4) starter Jack Perkins to unravel. The junior hurler hit four batters in the frame (and three in a row) to extend Maryland’s two-out rally, plating two more runners to give the Terps a 3-0 advantage.
In the fifth, a Costes double and Jancarski RBI two-bagger knocked Perkins (2-2, 3.82 ERA) out of the game.
The Terps added runs in the sixth and eighth innings to help put the game away, including second baseman Nick Dunn’s sixth homer of the season.
“The biggest key to that is Dunn and Marty in the middle,” Vaughn said. “You start looking at quality at-bats … they strung together some really big at-bats for us. So, I don’t know if that’s a permanent lineup for us, but it’s going to be big if we can get those two guys in the middle really swinging the bat.”
In the seventh, Stetson left fielder Baylen Sparks led off with a single and advanced to third following an error and wild pitch. An infield single plated Sparks for the Hatters’ lone run. But Blohm closed the inning with with three-straight curveballs to second baseman Nico Torino, who watched the first one float over for a strike before swinging and missing at the next two.
After the Terps were held off-balance by Stetson ace Logan Gilbert on Friday, it was Blohm’s turn for a standout display on the mound. First baseman-turned-reliever Kevin Biondic closed out Saturday’s win to even the series with the Hatters.
“That’s one of the first outings [Blohm] actually really had his breaking ball consistently, and that’s a game-changer,” Vaughn said. “Fortunately today, he didn’t have to grind through too much adversity because he was pretty dominant.”
