Alisa Johnson attends nearly every Maryland baseball game — even ones where her son, Andrew Johnson, isn’t pitching. She has her usual seat in the red bleachers at Bob Smith Stadium, but when the senior left-hander takes the mound, she can hardly sit still.
Her nerves were on full display in March, when Andrew Johnson secured two saves in a single day against Princeton and Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. After Maryland’s postgame huddle, she leapt onto the field to give her son a big hug.
“It really gives me the chills, because it was a really big moment,” Andrew Johnson said. “When your mom’s heart is in it, it makes it easier for your heart to be in it.”
Andrew Johnson credited his mom for everything —- from taking off work to watch his games, to making home-cooked chicken fried rice on Maryland’s Monday off-days, to sending him motivational quotes before each game.
Johnson’s bond with his mom is just one of the many ways Maryland’s seniors have been shaped by the women who raised them. As their college careers wind down, several Terps reflected on the sacrifices, traditions and support their mothers have provided — both on and off the field.
“I appreciate everything she’s done for me. I mean, I really can’t even realize it until maybe one day I have kids,” Johnson said. “She’s been the best mother possible. She’s supported me through surgeries, down moments, all that stuff.”
Alex Calarco described his mother, Sheri, as a farm girl from Iowa who married into a love of baseball. She met his father, John, shortly after he wrapped up a professional stint with the Salt Lake City Trappers.
Once Alex Calarco and his brother, Anthony, picked up the game, baseball quickly became a family affair. As John Calarco threw batting practice for his sons in high school, Sheri Calarco tracked down fly balls in the outfield.
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Since Alex and his brother began playing, Sheri Calarco has spent plenty of money — and traveled plenty of miles — to support them. She regularly travels from Illinois to College Park to watch Alex play, proudly waving a Maryland flag near the third base line at home games.
When a security guard once told her the flag wasn’t allowed inside an opposing stadium, she quickly found a workaround: she wrapped it around her shoulders like a cape and walked in.
“When things go wrong, I can always just find her in the stands, and she’ll always give me that big smile,” Alex Calarco said. “She’s always just that sunshine in the darkness.”
Missy Hacopian, the mother of Eddie and Chris Hacopian, similarly wasn’t always a baseball fan. That changed when she met her husband, former Maryland standout Derek Hacopian.
Missy was waitressing at a bar in Beloit, Wisconsin, at the time, and began attending Derek’s minor league games with the Beloit Snappers — often watching alongside other players’ wives while she learned the game. Now, she has decades of baseball knowledge with both her sons starring for the Terps.
When Eddie Hacopian went undrafted last summer — a draft he felt confident he’d be selected in — he said his mom was there for him as he processed the disappointment.
“Her words of encouragement and just being there for me in a tough time was the most important thing I could have had,” Eddie Hacopian said. “She told me, ‘Look at where you were three years ago and look where you are now. Who would have thought you’d have this opportunity?’”
Ryan Van Buren’s mom, Tina, was already a diehard Philadelphia Phillies fan before he was born — just like the rest of their family. Van Buren often spent his birthdays at Phillies games, where his name would appear on the jumbotron’s birthday display.
When deciding where to go to school, Maryland’s three-hour commute from Philadelphia was a main factor. Van Buren said his parents come to every home series and the away series that are a reasonable distance.
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“Growing up, she’d always play sports with me. She had me playing every sport out there,” Van Buren said. “I think that just kind of drove me that I ended up liking baseball the best and she helped me get to where I am today.”
Growing up in Puerto Rico, Omar Melendez’s mother, Vilmarie Guilfu, immersed him in baseball at a young age as she took him to watch his father play semi-professional baseball. She’d take him to the field to practice and train.
When Melendez earned a scholarship to play at a high school 40 minutes away during his junior year, Guilfu woke up at 5 a.m. to drive him there — then returned home to take his brother to school.
She’s only watched Melendez pitch collegiately three times — twice at Alabama State and once at Maryland. The Terps’ senior day later this month will mark the fourth. For Melendez, the opportunity for her to watch him one last time collegiately is an ode to all the devotion she’s shown.
“From the distance, she’s still my number one supporter,” Melendez said. “[Her coming to senior day] means all the sacrifices she’s made for me in my life are paying off.”
