The Maryland baseball team opens the 2007 season as it travels to Rock Hill, S.C. for the Winthrop Challenge. The tournament is a three-day event in which the Terrapins will face the host Eagles at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, Gardner-Webb at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, and Creighton at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday. This year's tournament is the seventh time in the Terry Rupp era that the team has opened the season on the road, and the fifth time in which the opening tilt came at a tournament. Note: The Terps game against Winthrop has moved up an hour from 4:00 p.m. and will now start at 3:00 p.m.

All three games can be heard live on WMUC Sports, http://www.wmucsports.com.

• The Terps come into this weekend on the heels of a four-game win streak to close out the 2006 season. Maryland notched victories over West Virginia, twice over UMES, and Coppin State in May.
• The Terps are 45-38-1 all-time in season openers, but have not won on opening day since 2001, a 19-18 victory against North Carolina A&T in Rupp's fi rst game at the helm of Terps baseball.
• Junior lefthander Brett Cecil heads up the bullpen, as the preseason second team Baseball America All-American looks to top a record-shattering season in 2006, one in which he set a new mark with 13 saves in a season. Cecil's first save this season will leave him as the school's career leader, as he is currently tied atop the leaders with 15.
• This is the seventh straight season under Rupp in which the Terps have opened the season on the road. The last time that Maryland hosted an opponent on opening day was in 1991, a 6-4 victory against Catholic in College Park.

SERIES HISTORY
Maryland has never won against Winthrop, with an all-time record of 0-6 against the Eagles. Gardner-Webb holds a 2-1 advantage in the all-time series against the Terps. The Terps are also winless against Creighton, having lost both of their matchups. Over the past three seasons, Maryland has compiled a 1-5 record at the tournament hosted by Winthrop.

MELVIN'S MAGIC
Senior Dan Melvin enters the season as the top producer in the Terps lineup, as he led the team in 10 different offensive categories in 2007. The shortstop posted team highs in the following categories: batting average (.338), at-bats (204), runs (34), hits (69), home runs (five), RBIs (30), slugging percentage (.471), walks (23), on base percentage (.416), and multi-hit games (22). After posting those numbers, which were all career bests, Melvin's career batting average stands at .302, with 77 RBIs and 41 doubles.

TERPS CLOSE OUT 2006 WITH A BANG
As the team opens the 2007 season at Winthrop on Feb. 9, Maryland will be looking to build on its four-game win streak which closed out the 2006 regular season. Maryland grabbed an 11-9 victory at West Virginia on May 9, coming off a 13-hit outing which was capped by a three-run eighth inning to earn the lead. In that inning, Mike Murphy led off with a double and scored on a Steve Braun single after advancing to third on Dan Benick's sacrifice. Braun came home on a Nick Jowers triple on the next at-bat, and following a pitching change, Matt Maropis brought home the 11th run of the day on his double to right field. Brett Cecil closed out the game for his 12th save of the season after pitching a scoreless ninth inning. The win earned a season sweep over the Mountaineers, after the Terps defeated WVU, 10-8, in College Park on April 18. The final weekend of the season brought three more wins for the Terps, as solid pitching performances by Brad Taylor, Seth Overbey, and Ben Pfinsgraff earned wins over UMES in doubleheader action, 5-1 and 3-2, as well as a 7-0 shutout of Coppin State on May 11 in the season finale. The four-game win streak is the team's longest since the 2004 season, when it won four games in five days to end the month of March, notching wins over Duke twice, as well as VCU and Delaware.

GOOD THINGS COME IN THREES FOR SPESSARD
Sophomore infielder Gerry Spessard tied a school record last season when he amassed five triples, a mark that is held by five other Terrapins. The last player to reach five triples in a season was Matt Swope, who accomplished the feat. The other players to do so are Ken Noe (1990), Tom Brown (1962), Chet Hanulak (1954), and Charlie Keller (1935). Spessard finished the season with a .259 average, and led the team with 14 doubles along with his five three-baggers.

THE HARDER THEY COME, THE HARDER THEY FALL
In 2006, Maryland played a slate rated 10th-most difficult among all Division I teams. The Terps played 27 games against ranked foes, beginning with the No. 26 Winthrop Eagles in their second weekend of action. As the team entered conference play, it faced off against eight ACC foes who cracked the rankings. Despite its grueling schedule, Maryland went on to win nearly a third of its games against ranked opponents. Those wins came over No. 3 North Carolina, No. 25 James Madison and No. 24 Wake Forest on the road, and No. 14 Miami, No. 15 Old Dominion and No. 3 Georgia Tech twice within the confines of Shipley Field. Third-ranked Georgia Tech came to College Park during the weekend of March 31-April 2, and while the Jackets impressed with a 15-4 victory in the opening game of the series, the resilient Terps came back to win the next two games, 6-3 and 8-5. In the first of their two wins, senior Ben Pfinsgraff pitched six innings with seven strikeouts while allowing just three runs, and Brett Cecil entered the game in the seventh and was lights-out, allowing just one hit in the final three innings to earn the save. A day later, the Terps won the rubber match as Casey Baron earned the victory, aided by strong relief outings from Cecil and senior Seth Overbey. The victories over Georgia Tech marked the team's second-straight year with wins over a highly-ranked Yellow Jackets squad, as the Terps defeated the top-ranked Jackets in Atlanta, 2-1, almost exactly one year prior.