When Maryland baseball catcher Justin Vought faced closer John Murphy in a fall exhibition game, he was blown away by the right-hander’s fastball and breaking ball combination. It was a level of pitching the freshman had rarely seen before.

“Wow, you’re with the big boys now,” Vought remembered thinking to himself.

The raw power Vought displayed in high school made Maryland coach Rob Vaughn eager to watch his debut season in College Park. But the catcher has yet to deliver on his promise, often being overpowered in the manner he went down against Murphy. He started his Terps career 0-for-13 with six strikeouts.

But on Tuesday, Vought broke through, launching a home run against Richmond. Maryland could use more of that production from its backstop during its series against Northwestern this weekend.

“A lot of guys talk about launch angle and that kind of stuff,” Vought said. “Right now, I’m just trying to get damageable pitches, understanding it’s a big adjustment from high school pitching to here.”

[Read more: “Something that can’t happen”: Maryland baseball has a strikeout problem]

So far, Maryland’s catching rotation has yet to live up to Vaughn’s preseason prediction that it would become a “three-headed monster.”

Justin Morris, the trio’s senior leader, is batting .183 without an extra-base hit. Ty Friedrich has been sidelined since leaving the team’s March 17 matchup with then-No. 18 East Carolina due to an apparent arm injury. Vought is hitting .067 in the six games he’s played.

The Terps hope Vought’s long ball against Richmond ignites a turnaround behind the plate.

They know he has potential to lead that charge. Vaughn, who was instructed to scout Vought by then-coach John Szefc in 2015 after Vought launched four home runs in a Virginia tournament, called him a “physical specimen.” Left fielder Marty Costes said he has “crazy power.”

Until Vought faced Richmond, however, those superlatives seemed hollow.

[Read more: Six-run sixth dooms Maryland baseball in 10-3 loss to Richmond]

In his lineup debut against Ball State on March 4, Vought liked his first swing. But he caught too much of the ball in on his hands and flied out to deep left-center field. He struggled in his next three starts before the Richmond game, when he drove an elevated fastball over the fence.

Vaughn said the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, native put top-spin on the ball and only cleared the left-center field wall because of his strength.

While Morris is the favored weekend starter because of his connection with the pitching staff, Vought could develop into a useful bat for a lineup hitting below expectations. The Terps are batting 42 points below last season’s mark of .274.

“It’s really hard to be a freshman behind the plate and be really good because you’ve got a lot of stuff going on,” Vaughn said. “Our big thing with him is just every time we run you out there, just continue to get better, continue to get more comfortable, and just keep building off the last outing.”