Maryland baseball introduced itself to Indiana on Friday evening with a dominant 13-2 victory, kicking off an impactful three game series between the two top teams of the Big Ten. Nick Dean put the team on his back for his first Friday start of the season, and his offense pulled their weight and then some.
Dean, who threw a career-high seven innings and collected a season-high 10 strikeouts, pitched marvelously when his name was called. He let up a mere five hits and one walk over his tenure, setting the bullpen up with just two runs to his name.
Nick Lorusso was a welcome addition back into the Maryland lineup after missing his last two games with a hamstring strain, as he and Matt Shaw led the Terps with three hits on the night. They got all of their scoring done over the first and fifth innings, and team-oriented small-ball rewarded eight out of nine Maryland batters with at least one RBI.
“It was our best game of the year by far,” Maryland Coach Rob Vaughn said. “The offense really set the tone…and then you just turn the ball over to Dean. We played great defense, I thought our bats were really relentless.”
The Terps (28-15, 9-4 in Big Ten) greatly impressed in the two midweek games leading up to their series in Bloomington, mercy-ruling both UMBC and Georgetown in 24-11 and 16-3 throttlings. Maryland completed a program record 17-run second inning in the Tuesday defeat over the Retrievers, and Shaw slammed his 44th career home run against the Hoyas to shatter another school milestone.
Indiana (31-12, 9-4 in Big Ten) entered the critical weekend on an eight game hot streak. They were the only team with a higher conference winning percentage than the Terps, but drew even with Maryland after the Friday loss.
Neither of the two teams were named as one of D1Baseball’s top 25 teams, but they’re both on the cusp of such a distinction. A successful rest of the weekend for Indiana could separate themselves from the rest of the conference, whereas Maryland has a chance to seriously improve its playoff odds.
Shaw wasted no time adding to his new home run record, cracking a home run in the top of the first to get the scoring started. Lorusso followed him up with another long shot on the very next pitch, and Eddie Hacopian drove in Ian Petrutz to put the Terps up 3-0, chasing starter Seti Manase off the bump after just one wild inning.
Starter Dean took Jason Savacool’s standard Friday assignment so the usual ace could take a week off, and pitched lights out to start the evening. He tossed a near-seamless first inning, and escaped a bind in the second by placing two runners on base before snatching several more Ks to escape without a hitch.
“Dean was absolutely outstanding,” Vaughn said. “He looked fresh tonight, he felt good, he was executing pitches…he was the story of the game, as good as the offense was. He was absolutely elite tonight.”
A pitching duel commenced between Dean and Indiana’s Brayden Risedorph, functioning as the starter, and they each mowed through each others’ lineups through much of Friday’s first half. Both had racked up four strikeouts entering the fifth inning in 60 or fewer pitches, with the only crack in Dean’s armor arriving at the end of the fourth with a Connor Mathison solo homer.
The Maryland offense exploded once again in the fifth inning, and this drove a second straight pitcher off the mound. The Terps started by loading the bases before anyone was called out, and a string of hits followed. Five different players walked away with an RBI as they put up six runs on Risedorph, and Shliger added another on the new pitcher to pump the lead to 10-1.
Dean cruised from this point on, retiring after his seventh final dominant inning. His 10 strikeouts over 101 pitches made for one of his best starts of the season, as well as the deepest he’s pitched into a game all spring. He let up a second home run to one of his final batters, but the Maryland offense scored on a wild pitch earlier in the seventh to hold the score to 11-2.
“That guy knows how to win big games,” Vaughn said. “For him to go out and do what he did tonight [made this] a special night for him. We’ve needed that all year, and he’s getting hot at the right time.”
Shaw drove in two more runs in the top of the ninth for some extra insurance, and the Hoosiers failed to close the 13-2 gap before they ran out of outs, giving Indiana just their second home loss of the season. Dean earned the win, and Logan Ott was handed the save after two spotless frames.
Maryland will get a chance to steal the series tomorrow at 1 p.m.
