Photo courtesy of Ashley Ray/Maryland Terrapins
Maryland baseball (13-12, 2-4 Big Ten) resumes its conference play against the Northwestern Wildcats (10-12, 3-3) in a home weekend series. The Terps are still looking for their first three-game series win of the year as they have failed at the rubber match in their prior four attempts.
The Terps will be looking for some more consistency from their pitching staff as they have struggled keeping runs off the board in their last few series.
The Terps will take on the Wildcats Friday at 6 p.m. for their first match of the weekend, with ace pitcher-redshirt sophomore Kyle McCoy making a start following his first poor performance of the season at Washington.
McCoy ended his outing with eight hits and five earned runs in 4.2 innings. He will enter Friday’s game with a 2.75 ERA.
The two freshmen, Logan Hastings and Jake Yeager, will be the likely starters for Saturday and Sunday’s matches. Both put up some of their best outings of the season last week against Washington. Hastings pitched 7.2 innings, only allowing three hits and one earned run on Saturday, while Yeager pitched 4.2 innings, only allowing three hits and two earned runs.
On Northwestern’s side, grad student Sam Hliboki will likely be starting on the mound for the Friday game. He is entering the weekend with a 3.78 ERA in 33.1 innings pitched. He has played in eleven games, four of which were starts, and he has a record of 1-2.
Freshman Matthew Kouser will be the name to watch for Saturday’s game, and senior Crawford Wade for Sunday’s. Kouser enters the weekend with a 5.62 ERA in seven games, all starts, and 32 innings pitched. Wade enters the game with a 6.82 ERA in six games, all starts, and 30.1 innings pitched.
Both struggle with consistency in their outings, with a trend of short outings with multiple runs, or longer outings with limited runs.
The Wildcats’ defense is strong, with only fifteen errors so far in their 22 games. The Terps have a lot of room to improve in this area.
Northwestern’s best bats come from a pair of juniors: Trent Liolios, with a batting average of .371 on the season, and Owen McElfatrick, who hits .316.
The games will be streamed on B1G+, or you can listen via the Maryland Baseball Network.
