Maryland baseball’s Nick Dean hadn’t pitched in a game in 13 days leading up to his Friday start against Indiana, but he sure didn’t show any rust.
Facing some early adversity after allowing a leadoff walk and an ensuing single through the left side, Dean struck out the next two batters on eight pitches before working the third out on a liner to Nick Lorusso.
From then on, Dean allowed just three hits — two of which came to bite him in the form of solo home runs — and seemingly left an explosive Hoosier offense that ranks toward the top of the conference speechless.
Dean’s masterful seven-inning outing paired with an explosive 12-hit performance from the Maryland (28-15, 9-4 B1G) bats gave it a 13-2 victory in the opening game against Indiana (31-12, 9-4 B1G). The Terps tied the Hoosiers at the top of the conference standings with the win.
“I thought it was our best game of the year by far,” coach Rob Vaughn said.
The Terps jumped out to an early two-run lead with back-to-back home runs off the bats of Matt Shaw and Nick Lorusso. Sophomore first baseman Eddie Hacopian then drove in sophomore designated hitter Ian Petrutz — who had doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch — with a sac fly to give Maryland a 3-0 lead after the first half-inning.
The bats went cold for both sides after Maryland’s hot start, with only one combined hit in the second and third innings. Maryland’s starter, Dean, looked sharp right out of the gates in his first Friday start of the season.
“The offense really set the tone in the top half,” Vaughn said. “The back-to-back homers early and then it didn’t stop there, which was the big thing … and then you just turn the ball over to Dean, he was absolutely outstanding. He looked fresh tonight, he felt good, he was executing pitches … he’s the story of the game.”
Junior right-hander Jason Savacool, the typical Friday starter, had his start pushed back to Sunday to give the ace some additional rest. He had gone over 100 pitches in each of his last four starts and Dean hadn’t pitched in two weeks due to forearm tightness.
Dean didn’t make his first mistake until the middle of the fourth inning, when he left a ball hanging over the upper portion of the plate and sophomore designated hitter Carter Mathison sent a ball over the right field fence.
The senior right-hander ultimately went seven innings, allowing just five hits and two earned runs. Impressive command and movement on his fastball and offspeed pitches led to a career-high 10 strikeouts.
Dean hasn’t allowed more than two runs through five starts in Big Ten play, a stark turnaround from his rough non-conference start to the season.
Meanwhile, the Maryland bats came back to life in a big way once the fifth inning rolled around. They combined for seven runs on five hits, batting around the order in a statement inning.
The Terps scored seven runs in the monstrous fifth with small ball, as their longest hit was a double by junior second baseman Kevin Keister. Other runs came in to score on two sac flies, a bunt single, a hit-by-pitch and a single, giving the Terps a commanding 10-1 lead.
“I thought our at-bats were really relentless,” Vaughn said. “Early in the year, we score a couple in the beginning of the inning and it’s almost like, ‘Alright, we’re good, we scored three or four.’ But they just kept coming, kept coming, kept coming and turned it into seven [runs].”
The Hoosiers were forced to dip into their bullpen fairly heavily in the opening game of the series, using six pitchers. Junior starter Seti Manase went just one inning, allowing three runs. The following pitcher, freshman Brayden Risedorph, threw two solid innings before the fifth-inning meltdown, forcing him to come out of the game in the middle of the frame.
Maryland added one run to its total in the seventh. After three straight walks loaded the bases, senior left fielder Bobby Zmarzlak scored from third on a wild pitch, giving the Terps an 11-1 advantage.
Indiana tacked on one more run in the bottom of the same inning. Dean made just his second major mistake of the night, allowing his second solo homer, this time to freshman second baseman Tyler Cerny.
Shaw put the cherry on top of the Terps’ offensive explosion with a two-RBI double in the top of the ninth as they took a 13-2 win in game one of the weekend set.
