Photo courtesy of Ian Cox/Maryland Terrapins
Maryland baseball (23-27, 8-16 Big Ten) travels to Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Gophers (22-24, 8-16) in an important game for each team’s Big Ten conference tournament hopes.
Both the Terrapins and the Gophers are two games behind the twelfth-place Michigan State Spartans (10-14 Big Ten), and with a good series, either team could improve their odds heavily.
The Terps are coming off their first series win of the season against the Penn State Nittany Lions, and are towards the end of an eight-game road stretch.
The two teams will start the series on Friday at 7 p.m. The Terps have been consistent all year with their Friday starter, redshirt sophomore Kyle McCoy, who can be expected to make another start for the Terps.
McCoy is coming off a strong performance against Penn State, pitching six innings with no earned runs. McCoy enters the series with a 3.00 ERA in 72 innings pitched.
He has helped the Terps to two straight Friday wins going into the series.
The Gophers have been rolling with junior Joe Sperry for the last three Friday games. Sperry transferred from South Carolina Lancaster, where he pitched and hit at a high level. Sperry enters the series with a 4.63 ERA in 46.2 innings pitched.
You can also expect to see sophomore Kyle Remington and redshirt senior Justin Thorsteinson make starts for the Gophers this weekend.
Remington enters the series with a team-low 4.58 ERA in a team-high 57 innings pitched. Thorsteinson enters the series with a 5.91 ERA in 42.2 innings pitched.
The Terps have made more changes in the pitching staff, but a couple of pitchers you will most likely see pitching multiple innings will be sophomore Joey McMannis, freshman Logan Hastings and senior Omar Melendez.
McMannis enters the series with a 9.26 ERA in 35 innings pitched.
Hastings, who has been a bullpen piece as of late for the Terps despite starting games early in conference play, comes into the series with a 5.79 ERA in 46.2 innings pitched.
Melendez, who pitched five innings at the start of the Sunday loss to the Nittany Lions, entered the series with a 7.07 ERA in 28 innings pitched.
Junior Weber Neels is a Gopher batter to watch out for as he enters the series with a .414 on-base percentage, 12 home runs and 32 RBIs.
Another batter to watch out for is junior Drew Berkland, as he enters the series with 12 home runs and 48 RBIs.
The games will be streamed on Big Ten+, and you can listen along at Maryland Baseball Network.
