Maryland baseball adds pitching to 2026 roster through portal, loses pair of stars

Ahmed Ghafir
2 days ago
2 min read

Maryland baseball suffered its first sub-.500 season since 2018, the first season of the Rob Vaughn era, after head coach Matt Swope guided the program to a 27-29 finish in his second season as head coach. And heading into year three, Swope will lean on different faces with a pair of stars departing and a trio of portal commitments already secured.

The outgoing departures are headlined by first baseman Hollis Porter, who has already announced his transfer to Texas Tech, and shortstop Chris Hacopian, who debuted as the top prospect in the transfer portal. Their departures signal the loss of two of Maryland’s best bats after Hacopian followed up a stellar freshman campaign after finishing with the third-best batting average in the Big Ten (.375) while his on-base percentage (.502) ranked among the top in program history. Chris Hacopian, younger brother of senior Eddie and son of former Maryland star Derek, previously joined the program after flipping his commitment from Wake Forest and serves as the biggest offseason blow.

Porter, meanwhile, sat third on the team in batting average (.303) while his 21 home runs ranked third in the Big Ten. The duo joined RF Dom Moats, C Jacob Hauk, IF Luke Keefer and RHP Joey McMannis as outgoing departures for Swope, who has restocked the pitching in 2026.

One day before McMannis entered the transfer portal, rising sophomore Lance Williams, a RHP out of East Carolina, announced his transfer to Maryland after posting 25 appearances and a 5.31 ERA with a 1.62 WHIP. He struck out 47 in 40.2 innings, walking 29 and hitting 13 batters. The new Maryland pitcher is coming off a start against 17th-ranked Florida in the NCAA Tournament, where he posted five strikeouts against two walks and three hits.

Williams is one of two incoming pitchers with Landon Edwards, a LHP out of Rowan, headed to College Park after posting 88 strikeouts and recording a 2.68 ERA in 2025, finishing 4-2 with 15 appearances and a pair of complete games.

Catcher Rylan Stockton, meanwhile, joins the program with three years of eligibility left after 47 starts and 49 appearances at UNC-Asheville in 2025. The rising sophomore posted a team-high .343 batting average with seven home runs and 33 RBIs and finished second in the conference with 19 runners caught stealing. Stockton, also a midseason Buster Posey Award Watch List selection, was named to the All-Conference Second Team and All-Freshman Team. The incoming catcher will compete with rising junior Devin Russell at catcher in 2026.

Matt Swope also returns RHP Jake Yeager and Brayden Martin in 2026 while DeMatha (Md.) two-sport athlete Bud Coombs and Georgetown Prep (Md.) Austin Weiss are headlining a 12-man high school recruiting class.

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