Both sides were held without an answer for each respective pitching staff through four innings of the Big Ten championship game.
But Maryland baseball, as it’s done all season, found a way to produce with a three-run fifth inning and five different pitchers against Iowa.
Kevin Keister and Nick Lorusso went yard in the fifth inning. Kenny Lippman offered three perfect innings out of the bullpen. And David Falco Jr. shut the door by recording the final eight outs.
When all was said and done, No. 1-seed Maryland stood all alone at the top. Despite winning the Big Ten regular season title in 2022, it had failed to reach the more illustrious goal. But that changed when the Terps downed No. 3-seed Iowa in Omaha, Nebraska on Sunday, 4-0, to earn their first-ever Big Ten tournament title in program history.
The championship appearance marked Maryland’s first in the tournament since 2015, its initial season in the Big Ten. The Terps fell to Michigan in the contest, 4-3, and had not made it back to the conference championship game until Sunday, searching for the elusive title.
Sophomore right-hander Ryan Van Buren received the start, going just two innings in a short stint. Iowa recorded three singles off Van Buren in the opening frames, getting solid contact and threatening the basepaths.
Despite holding the Hawkeyes scoreless, coach Rob Vaughn elected to replace Van Buren in favor of sophomore left-hander Andrew Johnson to start the third inning.
Johnson pitched a scoreless third frame before walking the first two Hawkeyes of the fourth. Lippman then entered, recording a double play and a groundout to work out of the inning and end the Iowa scoring threat.
The fifth-year right-hander threw three scoreless innings without allowing a hit, continuing to leave the Iowa bats without an answer. Junior right-hander Nate Haberthier entered in the seventh inning with the Terps ahead 4-0.
Habethier faced just two batters, striking out one and walking another, before Vaughn pulled the plug and brought on Falco. The redshirt junior right-hander — one of Vaughn’s most trusted arms — recorded the final eight outs in a gutsy performance.
The Iowa pitching held Maryland similarly silent to start the action. Sophomore right-hander Marcus Morgan started and went just two innings — just like Van Buren — allowing one hit in his time. But Iowa shuffled through three pitchers in the first three innings alone, and the Terps were left without an answer.
Maryland’s only hit in the first four innings came from sophomore first baseman Eddie Hacopian as the Terps’ bats started slow. But Keister’s homer in the fifth frame — Maryland’s second base knock of the day — broke the scoring open, sending in sophomore left fielder Jacob Orr and giving Maryland a 2-0 lead.
Lorusso smashed a solo home run just three batters later to put the Terps ahead 3-0. It was the senior third baseman’s 23rd homer of the year and his second of the tournament after his walk-off blast against Nebraska on Thursday.
Orr plated Maryland’s fourth run of the game with a single to score Hacopian in the sixth inning.
That was all the scoring the Terps needed, as their pitching staff once again delivered and earned the team the conference trophy. Maryland became the first team since Minnesota in 2018 to claim both the regular season title and the tournament title.
