Maryland baseball continues their ten-game road trip this weekend as they head to the midwest for a three-game series with the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The two teams met five times last season, with Maryland winning four of them, including twice in the Big Ten tournament, the second time coming on a walk-off home run by Nick Lorusso. The Terps will be tested by a really good Nebraska team, and a raucous environment at Haymarket Park, in a series they really need to win. Here’s a look at the upcoming series.
Where We Are:
Maryland
The Terps are coming off a thrilling 11-10 victory on Tuesday at Delaware. It was a game Maryland led 8-1, before allowing the Blue Hens to come back and make it interesting, although the Terps never surrendered the lead. The big news from the game was that Kenny Lippman pitched out of the bullpen, and he will not be in Maryland’s weekend rotation for the time being. The Terps are barely in the Big Ten Tournament picture currently hanging on to the eighth and final spot at 5-7 in the conference and 24-14 overall. Maryland comes into the weekend with an RPI ranking of 50.
Nebraska
The Cornhuskers are having an excellent season, currently at 6-3 in conference play, good for second place in the Big Ten at the moment. They are 23-11 overall, but have struggled recently dropping five of their last six, most recently a 6-4 loss at home on Tuesday to Creighton. The Huskers have a very realistic shot of making the NCAA Tournament this season after missing out on the last two. Nebraska’s RPI is currently ranked 20th in the nation.
Series Schedule
Friday: 7:05 – Logan Koester (4-4, 5.83 ERA) vs Brett Sears (6-0, 1.32 ERA)
It’s been a tale of two seasons for Logan Koester, who will make his first Friday night start of the season this week. Koester had an ERA of 2.79 during non-conference but has an ERA over 11 in Big Ten play. In his last three starts, he has allowed eight, six, and five earned runs respectively. He went four and a third in his last outing against Northwestern, allowing the five earned runs to the Wildcats.
Senior Nebraska righty Brett Sears is having one of the best seasons of any pitcher in America, and will be quite a challenge for the Maryland lineup. He gave up two to Rutgers over six innings in his last outing, but in the outing before his last, Sears pitched a two-hit, ten-strikeout, complete-game shutout against Ohio State. He ranks first in the Big Ten in ERA, hits per nine, and strikeout-to-walk ratio. His .65 WHIP is first in the entire country. He was named to the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List and was a D1 Baseball midseason 2nd-team All-American. He is the 8th Nebraska pitcher to start 6-0 since 1999, and the first since 2015.
Saturday: 3:00 – TBD vs Mason McConnaughey (4-2, 2.29 ERA)
Maryland has yet to announce a Saturday starter. With the struggles of Kenny Lippman, Matt Swope opted to move Lippman back to the bullpen, where he had success in 2023. One possible for Maryland to start Sunday could be freshman Evan Smith, who has thrown three consecutive scoreless outings, including three innings of one-hit relief over two games against Northwestern. He has allowed just one earned run in his last six outings. Another potential option could be normal midweek starter Ryan Van Buren, who pitched two and two-thirds innings of relief against Delaware on Tuesday. Omar Melendez is a third possible Saturday starter.
As if facing one of America’s top pitchers Friday wasn’t enough, McConnaughey is the reigning Big Ten Pitcher of the Week after his stellar work against Rutgers. McConnaughey threw seven scoreless innings against the Big Ten’s top offense allowing just one Scarlet Knight to reach third base. The Topeka native has thrown at least five innings in each of his last four starts.
Sunday: 2:05 – Joey McMannis (0-0, 3.41 ERA) vs TBD
McMannis has been the Terps’ most consistent pitcher lately, as he has yet to surrender more than three earned runs in an outing this season. He went five in his last start against Northwestern. McMannis continues to look for his first collegiate win.
Nebraska has not announced a Sunday starter.
Hitters to Watch:
Maryland
It was a big day Tuesday for freshman Jordan Crosland, who hit a two-run homer, and also made an incredible catch in the outfield. He could be in line for some more at-bats soon. Eddie Hacopian also now has three home runs in his last two games after launching one in his first at-bat against Delaware. Look for freshman Michael Iannazzo to also get some at-bats this weekend. He started last weekend against Northwestern, and started at third on Tuesday against Delaware, but was taken out of the game for Jacob Orr after he missed a pop-up in the fifth inning.
Nebraska
The Cornhuskers have several key offensive contributors, including catcher Josh Caron. Caron was named to the Buster Posey Award Watch List. Caron is hitting .308 with seven home runs and 40 RBIs. The junior has hit safely in 15 of his last 16 games and posted 12 multi-hit games thus far. Another name to watch is Riley Silva. Silva has an on-base percentage of .425 and is the only Cornhusker to score more than 30 runs so far this season. Silva is also the first Cornhusker since Alex Gordon in 2005 to steal 20 bases. Nebraska has also gotten a lot of production from freshman Case Sanderson, who is hitting .365 on the season. His .518 on-base percentage ranks 28th in the nation.
All three games can be seen on Big Ten Plus. All Maryland Baseball games are free to listen to on the Maryland Baseball Network.
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