Maryland baseball midweek preview vs. George Washington and James Madison

By: Harrison Rich and Michael Howes

Maryland baseball (21-14, 6-3 B1G) travels back to the DMV for midweek games against George Washington (13-24, 4-5 A-10) and James Madison (20-15, 5-8 SBC). 

“Double middle weeks are tough,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “Double mental weeks aren’t easy. I mean, we haven’t quite executed at a high level [in] single game midweek[s].”

The Terps are coming off a weekend series win over Ohio State, winning Friday and Saturday’s matchups. But the Terps lost both their final game against the Buckeyes and their midweek last Tuesday against Georgetown to end the week at an even 2-2. 

The Terps enter the week as one of the most potent teams offensively in the Big Ten, averaging 7.97 runs per game, the third-most in the conference. They also are one of the best power-hitting teams, having slugged the most home runs in the conference alongside the second-best slugging percentage.

Third baseman Nick Lorusso stars in the Maryland offense, posting the most home runs in the Big Ten with 14. The senior is batting .364 on the season, driving home 55 RBIs, also the conference-high. 

Junior shortstop Matt Shaw is right behind him in offensive production with a .348 average on the season. His 12 home runs ranks fourth in the Big Ten.

The issue for the Terps has been their struggling pitching staff, which sports a 5.77 ERA, the fourth-worst in the conference. The pitching gets even worse for midweek games, averaging a 6.32 ERA in eight games. 

Junior right-hander Nate Haberthier is likely to start on Tuesday against George Washington, having started last Tuesday against Georgetown. Haberthier has a 7.27 ERA this season, notching a 2-2 record through five starts and nine appearances. He’s endured major struggles as of late, having allowed nine runs in his last 5.2 innings thrown.

Haberthier will look to get the Terps back on track before taking on James Madison.

“I told them we’re gonna take it a game at a time,” Vaughn said. “We’re trying to win on Tuesday and play good baseball and we’ll figure out Wednesday when we get there.”

Tuesday’s game against George Washington will be the second matchup between the two schools this season. The Terps defeated the Colonials 9-6 on March 21st.

Freshman right-hander Max Haug started the game for George Washington, throwing five innings and allowing only two earned runs as the Colonials built a 5-2 lead by the end of the fifth.

But the Terps pounced on the George Washington bullpen, outscoring the Colonials 7-1 the rest of the way en route to the win.

The Colonials’ pitching staff is even worse than the Terps’, entering Tuesday with a 7.56 ERA on the season. George Washington has allowed double-digit runs in half of its losses, including three defeats where it gave up at least 20 runs.

George Washington is a middle-of-the-pack squad offensively, averaging 6.2 runs per game.

Fifth-year first baseman Michael Kohn is the mainstay of the Colonials offense batting .326 on the year with a team-high seven home runs. Eddie Micheletti Jr. has also contributed offensively for the squad, batting a team-high .361. The junior right fielder has also recorded a team-high 34 RBIs on the season.

After facing off against the Colonials, the Terps will return back to ‘The Bob’ for Wednesday’s battle against James Madison.

The Dukes have had an up-and-down season, starting off 0-3 before running off a six-game win streak directly after. They evened out a bit after that point, going 14-12 since.

But coach Marlin Ikenberry’s squad most recently dropped a three-game set to Southern Mississippi, including a 15-2 mercy rule loss on Sunday.

The offense is led by sophomore left fielder Fenwick Trimble, who sports a 1.129 OPS and a .348 batting average along with nine homers and 40 RBIs. Redshirt senior first baseman Kyle Novak is second on the Dukes in RBIs with 28, alongside a .336 batting average. 

James Madison as a collective is not an offensive powerhouse by any means, ranking in the bottom-half of the Sun Belt in both home runs and RBIs, but it does rank fourth in the conference in batting average.

The Terps will look to claim their first midweek victory since March 28, when they defeated Georgetown 10-7. They dropped their last two midweek battles against William & Mary and a rematch against Georgetown.

“We got to come out and the offense [has] got to be really good on Tuesday,” Vaughn said. “Got to play really clean defense. We got to pound the strike zone. So if we do those things, we got a chance to be okay this week.”