Photo courtesy of Allison Mize/Maryland Terrapins
In the top of the first, following three straight walks, senior Gabe Swansen came to the plate and took a 1-2 pitch right over the right field wall.
The Cornhuskers (21-23, 9-12 Big Ten) would go on to score six runs in the first inning, which was too much for the Maryland Terrapins (20-25, 6-15 Big Ten) to crawl back against as they fell 21-5 in the seventh inning.
The struggles on Sunday have fueled the Terps’ inability to win a weekend series this year.
This was the Terps’ seventh rubber match of the season and fifth rubber match in conference play, and they have fallen short in each of these matches.
Many of these struggles stem from the pitching staff. They have allowed more double-digit runs in their last five series finales, only winning one of them against Northwestern, when they scored 22 runs.
Senior Andrew Johnson got the start for the Terps on the mound. Johnson has moved around the pitching staff, filling different roles.
In his last outing against Indiana, he came in relief and allowed three earned runs while only finding one out. Before that, he started against Oregon and had a better outing, allowing two earned runs in 3.1 innings pitched.
He entered the Sunday rubber match with a 6.66 ERA in 17 appearances, one start, and 25.1 innings pitched.
Johnson wouldn’t record an out against the Cornhuskers after he started the game with three straight walks and was taken out after the Swansen grand slam.
As the Terps dug into the bullpen, they wouldn’t be able to slow down the Cornhuskers’ bats as they would put up 11 runs in the first three innings before the Terps would record a hit.
Freshman Cristofer Cespedes would record his worst outing of his career, allowing 5 runs, 4 being earned, in 1.2 innings pitched.
The Terps’ hitting wasn’t able to bail out the defense once again. The Terps found success in the fourth inning, where they scored five runs, in large part due to a grand slam by sophomore Chris Hacopian.
“That wasn’t really a baseball game [..] we didn’t give ourselves a chance to compete in the game,” head coach Matt Swope said.
Nebraska’s senior pitcher Jackson Brockett got the start for the Cornhuskers. He entered the game with a 4.06 ERA in 9 starts and 37.2 innings pitched.
Brockett had a good outing, only allowing one hit outside of the five-run fourth inning.
Cornhuskers’ Swansen had a monstrous game at the plate for Nebraska. He hit 4-for-5, making it to second twice, along with his grand slam, three additional RBIs, and a walk. Senior Joshua Overbeek also had himself a day at the plate, hitting 3-for-5 with 5 RBIs.
This was the most runs allowed by the Terps all season and was the first time they allowed 20 runs since the 2023 NCAA Winston-Salem Regional against No. 1 Wake Forest.
“Like I’ve said several times this season, it’s not a level of effort, or energy, or what we’re bringing to the table, or coaching–but at some point–I mean we haven’t won a series all year, we just have to do it,” Swope stressed execution after the game, “I don’t think there’s anything necessarily you can point to before the game that’s going to necessarily give you a win or loss, you just have to do it during the game.”
The Terps will now look to an eight-game road stretch for their first series win. For now, Georgetown is on the radar with a Tuesday midweek game coming up.
