Maryland baseball took Nebraska to school on Sunday, demolishing the Huskers in a 20-5 throttling. A series that was largely back and forth in the first two games was completely forgotten as every Maryland starter walked away with at least one hit and four different home runs left the park, including the 11th grand slam of their impressive season.
The Terps’ magic number on this historic day was 20, and this went well beyond the score. The Game 3 win netted the Terps their 20th series victory in a row, a stretch dating back to midway through the 2021 season. Nick Lorusso obliterated two home runs en route to collecting eight RBI, tying Matt Shaw for 20 home runs to headline the team leaderboard.
Lorusso, the day’s star, notably passed Derek Hacopian, Eddie’s dad, for the most RBI in a single season at Maryland. The record stood since 1992 at 83 runs batted in, but the third baseman’s monster day at the plate set the new mark at 84 and counting.
“I think the big thing you try to do as a coach is make sure that you soak this up,” Maryland coach Rob Vaughn said. “Because you don’t get to coach a lot of Nick Lorussos, you don’t get a chance to coach a lot of Matt Shaws, Luke Shligers. Those guys don’t come around very often. Just trying to make sure we don’t blink and miss out on the run that these guys will take us on.”
Though the Terps (33-16, 13-5 in Big Ten) staged several impressive rallies to put themselves in the thick of their last game on Saturday, their fate was sealed after starting pitcher Kyle Mccoy gave up a first inning grand slam. Matt Shaw blasted his 20th home run of the season to mark his second straight year hitting that milestone, but it wasn’t enough to lift the Terps from a 12-10 defeat to tie the weekend series and set up the Sunday beatdown.
“It’s just a relentless group of guys,” Vaughn said. “The way these guys are attacking the zone…those guys are competing together, it’s pretty special. On a day that we needed to come out and be gone, we rang the bell and played really well.”
The Huskers (24-18-1, 9-7 in Big Ten) cracked the scoreboard first in the series finale, the third straight game they’d done so. Dylan Carey chipped a ball into a shallow outfield gap to bring in two runners from scoring position, taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the second.
Elijah Lambros tied the game a few minutes later when he ripped a liner through the infield to bring in two Terps to score. Both starters were relenting quite a few hits, starting with Jason Savacool, who’d allowed five hits through three innings. A dirty third frame resulted in a third Nebraska score on a fielder’s choice, but the starter bounced back with back-to-back swinging strikeouts.
Lorusso took a loud lead in the bottom of the third, blasting a long homer with Shaw on base to take a 4-3 lead. These would be his first RBI in the afternoon, and it was from this point onwards that momentum swung in Maryland’s favor.
True to form, the Maryland offense eventually showed up en masse, burying the Huskers with an eight-run fourth inning. Jacob Orr kicked it off with a three-RBI blast, and then Kevin Keister scored on a wild pitch after the Terps loaded the bases all over again. Lorusso cleared the two remaining baserunners with a deep single, and Ian Petrutz completed the eventful frame with a two-run homer to bring Lorusso home for a 12-3 lead.
Nebraska added a pair of runs in the fifth, but Maryland smothered the Huskers in the frame to follow. A second eight-run inning for the Terps, defined by a flurry of RBI leading up to a powerful Nick Lorusso grand slam to beef the score to 20-5 to break the senior Hacopian’s program record.
“That’s the beauty of these guys,” Vaughn said. “They love playing, they love winning, they love being together. They understand this team is guaranteed seven more games together and nothing is guaranteed after that. I think they’re enjoying competing and they’re on a pretty fun run right now.”
The scoring dragged to a halt for both sides in the last few innings, but the damage was done. Nebraska never got close to getting back in the game. They were held to nine hits to Maryland’s 20, and the home team’s relievers held up their end of the bargain by only allowing four of the nine. Matt Orlando closed the game without a hitch to seal the 20-5 stampeding.
“You run into a good arm, you better be able to score in multiple ways because you’re probably not gonna run 20 hits off,” Vaughn said. “But we’ll see, I wouldn’t put anything past these guys. They’re crazy, man.”
Maryland baseball will continue their lengthy homestand on Tuesday, when they’ll host Northeastern at 6:30 p.m.
