Three months ago, the Maryland baseball team traveled to Minneapolis for a weekend tournament featuring a couple of opponents at the time ranked in the top 10. With an opportunity to collect résumé-fortifying victories, the Terrapins instead got swept and dipped three games below .500.
It marked the nadir in the early going for a program that began the season ranked 13th with aspirations of perhaps a first berth in the College World Series. So senior third baseman Nick Lorusso, typically understated in his demeanor, took it upon himself to deliver a reassuring message to Coach Rob Vaughn.
“I remember Nick Lorusso coming to us at one point, and Nicky is not a guy that says a whole lot,” Vaughn said Tuesday during batting practice in College Park. “And he came to me after one game and said, ‘Coach, I’ve got this.’ I said, ‘All right.’ Those guys, the maturity of the older players … the experience and the mentality of those guys are what turned this thing.”
Maryland (41-19) proceeded to win six consecutive games and 13 of 15 on the way to winning every Big Ten series, culminating in the first conference tournament title in program history with a 4-0 victory over Iowa on Sunday in Omaha.
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The flourish down the stretch helped the Terrapins secure a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. They will face third-seeded Northeastern (44-14) on Friday in the Winston-Salem (N.C.) regional, which also includes No. 1 overall seed Wake Forest and fourth-seeded George Mason.
Maryland is making a third consecutive appearance in the double-elimination regional bracket and seeking to reach its first super regional since 2015. The winner of the Winston-Salem regional draws the winner of the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) regional in a best-of-three series for a spot in the College World Series.
“Momentum’s a big thing,” Terrapins catcher Luke Shliger said. “It’s confidence, though. You know, you win some close games, you win some games kind of how you’ve never won them before, kind of like what we did this weekend. We didn’t really score a bunch of runs, which we’re used to doing, but we won the close ones.”
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Maryland leads the Big Ten in virtually every meaningful offensive category, including batting average (.312), hits (660), home runs (123), runs (555), total bases (1,190), on-base percentage (.431) and slugging percentage (.562). It ranks second nationally in homers and third in slugging.
But in the Big Ten tournament, the Terrapins leaned on pitching and defense to win their first three games by a combined four runs. The highlight of the season unfolded in the second game of the tournament when Lorusso belted a solo home run in the bottom of the 10th for a 2-1 victory over Nebraska.
Lorusso’s 22nd home run not only propelled Maryland into the Big Ten tournament semifinals for the first time since 2017 but also delivered the Terrapins their first walk-off win this season.
The national leader in RBI this season with 99, Lorusso was named the tournament’s most outstanding player, hitting .267 with two homers, three RBI and two runs.
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“Just the way the team connected after that [win] I feel like was something truly special,” said Lorusso, the Terrapins’ career leader in RBI. “It’s something that I’ve never had before.”
In the championship game, Maryland, behind five pitchers, recorded its second shutout all-time in the Big Ten tournament. Right-hander Kenny Lippman (8-1) secured the win in relief by retiring all eight hitters he faced, starting with a double play in the fourth inning.
Reliever David Falco Jr. closed out the game with 2⅔ scoreless innings that included two strikeouts.
The Terrapins yielded five runs total in the Big Ten tournament for a team ERA of 1.22, a promising trend compared with how the staff has fared for much of the season. Maryland’s overall ERA is 5.68, which ranks seventh in the Big Ten.
Vaughn has not named his starter for the NCAA tournament opener, except to say the decision will come down to either Jason Savacool, a junior right-hander voted second-team all-Big Ten, or Nick Dean, a senior right-hander.
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Savacool has not allowed a run over his past seven innings comprising one start and a relief appearance in the Big Ten tournament. Dean started the second game of the Big Ten tournament, yielding two hits and one earned run with five strikeouts over 6⅓ innings.
“To do what these guys have done this year is awesome,” said Vaughn, in his sixth season at Maryland. “We had a belief system how to build this thing, and our administration has been phenomenal in allowing us that time to do that. We’ve got something in place now that I think makes them proud, that I hope makes every former player, every alumni that has come through here proud of what we’re doing.”
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