For the first time ever, the Maryland baseball program will play in the state of Oregon this weekend against the Portland Pilots. Shockingly enough, Friday night will be Portland’s first home game of the season. They played all of their first 14 games on the road. This will be the Terps’ final non-conference series before the start of Big Ten play, when Michigan State comes to The Bob next weekend. Here’s a look at this weekend’s series:
Where We Are:
Maryland
The Terps are coming off of a nail-biting 6-4 win over Mount St Mary’s on Tuesday. Despite a solid pitching performance from Ryan Van Buren, Maryland was unable to get any offense until the 7th inning. Trailing 4-3 going to the 9th, the Terps scored 3 unearned runs to take a 6-4 lead and avoid a loss that would have done serious damage to their resume and RPI. Currently, Maryland sits in first place in the Big Ten standings at 13-4.
Portland
The Pilots are coming off an impressive 15-5 win at Oregon on Tuesday. They are 9-5 on the season, and have played against some tough competition so far. They won their opening series at San Diego State before dropping series’ against USC and Creighton last weekend. Portland is currently third in the WCC standings behind San Francisco and Santa Clara.
Series Schedule
Friday – 9:00: Kenny Lippman (1-1, 2.93 ERA) vs Nick Brink (2-1, 4.50 ERA)
Portland pulled out a 5-3 win on Friday night thanks to their work in the early innings, handing Lippman his second loss of the season. Portland got its second batter of the game on base as the bats came alive, driving in three runs in the bottom of the first. Two innings later, a double to left field drove in two more runs as Maryland stared down a 5-0 deficit.
Maryland got on board after Chris Hacopian scored on a wild pitch before Kevin Keister drove in the second run on a sac fly. A double from Eddie Hacopian drove in the third and final run of the game in the top of the eighth, but it wasn’t enough as the Terps suffered its fourth road loss of the season.
Saturday – 6:00: Logan Koester (4-0, 2.45 ERA) vs Sam Stuhr (0-1, 6.86 ERA)
Koester will look to put together his third consecutive start of six innings or more after going seven against Bryant two weekends ago and six against Charlotte last weekend. In that start against the 49ers, he allowed just two earned runs and struck out five. A junior and Oregon State transfer, Stuhr has struggled so far this season allowing five runs each in his last three starts after not allowing one against San Diego State in his first start while striking out 12.
Sunday – 3:00: Joey McMannis (0-0, 3.18 ERA) vs TBD
McMannis went the first three innings in Maryland’s 7 inning win against Charlotte in game two of last Sunday’s doubleheader. He was effective allowing just two runs and has earned another weekend start for the Terps. Portland has not announced a starter for Sunday’s game.
Hitters to Watch:
Maryland:
Both of the Terps’ freshmen outfielders played a big role in Tuesday’s win over Mount St Marys. Jordan Crosland and Brayden Martin both have been huge for the Terps in some critical spots this season. Crosland hit his first collegiate home run last weekend in Friday night’s loss to Charlotte. Eddie Hacopian has reached base in all 17 games so far this season. Dating back to last season, he has reached in 26 consecutive games.
Portland:
In Tuesday’s win against Oregon, Redshirt Senior outfielder Jake Holcroft broke the program record for career hits with an RBI double, and currently has 259 hits. Holcroft was a 2022 All-WCC First Team player. Additionally, sophomore infielder Brady Bean has been lighting it up at the plate so far this season. The sophomore from Kennewick, Washington is currently hitting .357. He had a monster day at the plate on Tuesday going 3-4 with a homer, three RBIs, and two walks.
All three games can be streamed on ESPN+. All Maryland baseball games are free to listen to on the Maryland Baseball Network.
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