Nebraska Baseball Weekend Preview: Maryland

Maryland Terrapins (24-14) at Nebraska Cornhuskers (23-11)

Location: Hawks Field at Haymarket Park, Lincoln, NE

Dates: April 19th-21st

Times (all CDT): Friday @ 6:05 pm, Saturday @ 2:02 pm, Sunday @ 12:05 pm**Change**

Head Coaches: Matt Swope (1st season, 24-14) & Will Bolt (5th season, 120-86-1)

TV/Stream: All games streaming on B1G+, Nebraska Public Media on Saturday

Radio: Huskers Radio Network, Huskers.com, Huskers App

Maryland is a much different team than Nebraska last faced in the Big Ten Tournament. Gone is their head coach, Rob Vaughn, off to Alabama. Gone to the draft is the best 1-2-3 top of the order combo in not only the B1G, but one of the best in the country. Gone are 2 starters including former All-American Jason Savacool, and the 3rd starter is missing 2024 with Tommy John’s. Add their closer and their top reliever being drafted, and it’s no wonder this team is rebuilding.

Matt Swope is a Maryland lifer, and has moved over one slot from Associate head coach to the head coaching position. He held that position for 1 year after being an assistant coach for 5 seasons, and the Terps direction of baseball ops before that. During his playing days, he was on what at the time was the most successful Maryland team in 2005 as a senior. His staff is full of guys coming home that are from the state, and one assistant coach and the director of player development, that are former themselves.

Though the Terps record isn’t completely far off from last year, it was built up by a fairly pedestrian non-conference slate. In B1G play, the two time defending champions have struggled more than anyone could have foreseen. They are sitting in 8th in the standings at 5-7, but have dropped the last 3 B1G series, first to Michigan (which is a bit of a surprise) then Indiana (which is no surprise), then Northwestern (which is maybe the most shocking result of the season so far). Also of those 5 conference wins, 3 have come in extra innings. So they could be in even more trouble, record-wise than they currently are.

Pitching Probables

Game 1: RHP Brett Sears (6-0, 1.32 ERA) vs. RHP Logan Koester (4-4, 5.83 ERA)

Game 2: RHP Mason McConnaughey (4-2, 2.29 ERA) vs. TBD

Game 3: TBD vs. RHP Joey McMannis (0-0, 3.41 ERA)

Nebraska boasts not only the back to back reigning pitchers of the week in Brett Sears and Mason McConnaughey, but they are #1 and #2 in the B1G in ERA at 1.32 and 2.29 respectively. This past weekend, the Huskers lost the first game that Sears started all season. This was despite him handing the game over with the lead. He had yet another quality start, going 6 innings and giving up 2 runs in the 6th inning during a whirlwind rainstorm that was wild to watch on the stream. He was then was taken out an inning too early, IMO. The star of the week was Big Mac. He held the top offense in the B1G scoreless in his 7 innings, and added a career high 9 strikeouts, hence the weekly honor.

The Huskers have not named a Sunday starter. That is partially a referendum on Drew Christo’s recent track record, and also on the bullpen failing to secure wins on following Sear’s performance on Friday night. It seems the team is throwing all hands on deck to ensure the series win on Friday and Saturday, then piece Sunday together after that. I’d still give Christo a chance at starting, along with Will Walsh. Beyond those two, Caleb Clark may get a look, after his strong last two outings.

For Maryland, George Washington transfer Logan Koester is the new Friday night starter after starting on Saturdays recently. He started the year great, going 4-0 in his first 4 starts, but in Big Ten play, hes has gone 0-4, including fairly disasterous starts in the last 3. He is not a strikeout guy, having only 24 in 46 innings pitched compared to 18 walks, so being patient with him will help NU’s offense.

The Terps haven’t named a starter for Saturday. They are scrambling trying to piece together a staff. Going into conference play, they had the 2nd best team ERA behind Nebraska, but since then the team ERA is over 9.00. So former D-III All-American Kenny Lippman may have lost his weekend spot after being the team’s Friday night guy. They may be looking for some of their young guys to get some more time. Last year’s Maryland Gatorade POY Joey McMannis is leading the young guys. He will start Sunday and has a 3.41 ERA, leading all starters.

Scouting Report

The Maryland offense is well below where it has been recently. They are hovering around the bottom third of the league in batting average and runs scored, but of course are second in home runs, because they play in a little league field still. They work pitchers well, as they are amount the tops in both walks and strikeouts.

The offense is led by a pair of brothers. Older brother and first baseman Eddie Hacopian is leading the team with a .400 batting avg, and 1.096 OPS. He also has 6 home runs and 33 RBIs. Freshman INF Chris Hacopian is having a stellar first year. The 2022 Maryland Gatorade POY is second in the family and on the team, batting .322. He is tied for the team lead with 8 home runs and has 30 RBIs.

A familiar name in Iowa transfer second baseman Sam Hojnar is having his best season, batting ,294 and leading the team with 40 RBIs and also has 8 home runs. He also leads the team that rarely runs with 5 stolen bases on the season. However, he also has the distinction of pacing the team with 46 strikeouts on the season.

The defense is shall we say, not great, with a .967 fielding percentage. They lead the Big Ten in total errors with 46, and are led once again by the Hacopian brothers. Eddie has 8 and Chris has 7. That is a .924 fielding percentage for Chris. Yikes.

Series History

Maryland has a 11-7 record all time against the Huskers. They won the season series 2-1 last season, at their little league field. They also won both games against Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament on their way to the championship.

Husker Notes

• Josh Caron was named to the Buster Posey Award watch list. The award is given to the top catcher in the nation.
• Caron is one of 5 catchers hitting .300+, with 15 extra base hits, and 40 RBIs.
• Freshman Case Sanderson is 28th in the country in OBP, at .518.
• Riley Silva is the 10th Husker player since 2000 to steal over 20 bases, and the first since Alex Gordon in 2005.
• Ben Columbus is hitting .438 since returning from a hamstring injury. He has a double and his first 2 career home runs as a Husker in those 16 at bats.
• Tyler Stone is nursing a tweaked hamstring currently. He had the big pinch hit in the 9th inning against Creighton, but only managed to get to first base with the injury. He may be in for a similar role this weekend, especially with Columbus having a hot bat.