Categories: Non Rev

Maryland baseball weekend preview: Kieberg Bank College Classic

Maryland will hit the road again this weekend, but this time for a round-robin series against three different teams. It’s the third straight season the Terps have played in an early-season round-robin tournament. The previous two came in North Carolina and Minnesota. This time, the Terps head to Corpus Christi, Texas for the Kieberg Bank College Classic at Whataburger Field, home of the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks of the Houston Astros System. Maryland will take on three teams, two of them from power conferences. Here’s a look ahead to the weekend:

Where we are:

The Terps come into the weekend 3-1 after a 13-2 drubbing of Mount St. Mary’s in their home opener on Tuesday at The Bob. Ryan Van Buren pitched five and two-thirds innings of two-run ball, while the offense exploded for six runs in the first inning and six runs in the eighth. Sam Hojnar picked up two RBIs, while Devin Russell hit his first homer of the season in the bottom of the eighth.

Friday: vs Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 7:00 PM EST

The Islanders are coming off of a 2023 season that saw them go 24-30 and 12-12 in the Southland conference. A fairly young program, the Islanders began playing baseball in 2000, and have been led by Scott Malone since 2008. They have never won the Southland conference, but have finished in second place twice, most recently in 2021. Friday night will be the first-ever matchup between the two schools. Designated hitter Garrett Gruell has a pair of home runs and a team-high six RBIs through six games this season.

Probable starters: Kenny Lippman vs. Riely Hunsaker

Saturday: vs Pittsburgh, 3:00 PM EST

Maryland will take a former ACC foe on Saturday with an afternoon matchup set against the Pittsburgh Panthers. Maryland is 6-0 all-time against Pitt with the last meeting coming in May 2014. Pitt has three all-time NCAA tournament births, with the last one coming back in 1995. The Panthers are 3-0 after sweeping the Maine Black Bears in Port Charlotte, Florida before not playing any midweek games before this tournament. Catcher Jayden Melendez is the hitter to watch heading into the meeting, entering the weekend with a team-high .615 OBP and 1.24 OPS.

Probable starters: Logan Koester vs. Matt Porter

Sunday: vs Washington, 12:00 PM EST

The most appealing matchup of the weekend comes on Sunday when the Terps take on their future conference mates, the Washington Huskies. The Huskies have one of college baseball’s more odd records at 0-2-1. Washington played a three-game series at Long Beach State last weekend. They dropped the first two, but the third game went 17 innings and was called with the score tied 3-3. The Huskies are coming off one of their most successful seasons in a while, after making the NCAA Tournament in 2023 for the first time since they made the College World Series in 2018, an appearance which was later vacated by the NCAA. Washington fell to Oral Roberts and Dallas Baptist in the Stillwater Regional last season to end their 2023 campaign. Maryland and Washington have not played against each other before.

Probable starters: Meade Johnson vs. Jared Engman

All three games will be broadcast on FloBaseball. Every Maryland Baseball game is free to listen to on the Maryland Baseball Network.