#4 Nebraska Cornhuskers (32-21-1) at #1 Maryland Terrapins (38-19)
Location: Charles Schwab Field, Omaha, NE
Date/Time: Thursday, May 25th at 7 pm EST
Head Coaches: Will Bolt (4th season, 96-73-1) & Rob Vaughn (6th season, 161-108)
TV/Stream: BTN
Probable Pitchers: RHP Jace Kaminska (7-3, 4.36 ERA) vs RHP Nick Dean (3-1, 5.20 ERA)
After defeating Michigan State on Tuesday afternoon, Maryland baseball will step into a road atmosphere for game two of the Big Ten Tournament as they’re set to face Nebraska with first pitch set for 7 PM.
“There’s going to be 7,000 people here at [7 PM EST] on Thursday. It’s going to be rowdy,” head coach Rob Vaughn said following the Michigan State win.
Maryland took two of three games from Nebraska in their series earlier this month as the Terps’ bats caught fire, amassing 38 runs through the weekend before ending the regular season with 22 consecutive conference series wins. Thursday’s game will mark the first postseason matchup since 2017 after Maryland claimed an 8-5 win in Omaha.
Fourth-seeded Nebraska moved on after defeating Rutgers 9-7 on Wednesday after a six-run seventh inning proved to be the difference. Maryland, meanwhile, opened their postseason run needing extra time against the Spartans to pick up their 38th win of the season in a 3-2 game that featured two of the top offenses in the conference.
The Spartans got the scoring going in the first frame after loading the bases, leading Maryland to turn to their bullpen just two outs into the game, but Maryland responded back with a pair of sac flys to take their first lead in the bottom of the inning. With the game tied at two heading into the eighth, Luke Shliger would deliver the go-ahead run after a double brought in Jacob Orr for the game-winning run.
Bot 8 | Our captain in the clutch!!!
Luke Shliger plates the go-ahead run with a HUGE double in crunch time pic.twitter.com/GRXxzfYbW8
— Maryland Baseball (@TerpsBaseball) May 24, 2023
While Maryland has their own Golden Spike semifinalist in Matt Shaw, Nebraska has its own in infielder Max Anderson, who leads the team in hits (93), home runs (21), RBIs (69) and batting average (.412) and is five hits shy of becoming the eighth Husker to reach 100 hits in a single season. Maryland’s biggest concern all season has been its pitching and the Huskers will look to rock the boat once more with Brice Matthews and Gabe Swansen joining Anderson in the top five in the Big Ten in home runs, while Matthews’ .374 batting average sits a hair behind Nick Lorusso for fifth in the Big Ten.
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