Oct. 26, 2009

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland baseball team will hold its inaugural Red and Black "World Series" Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Shipley Field.

The three-game, intra-squad scrimmage will cap off fall practices, and mark the first full-squad scrimmages held under first-year head coach Erik Bakich. Game times are set for 6:00 p.m. Friday, and 1:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. All three games will be free of admission and open to the public.

The Terps return a number of players from last year's 27-27 team, including 10 of their top 11 pitchers in terms of earned run average. Maryland has been holding practices for over a month, with coaches using the time as an evaluation period and a building block for the start of next season.

Sander Beck is coming off an impressive summer pitching for Youse's Orioles of the Cal Ripken, Sr., Collegiate Baseball League, going 6-1 with a 1.56 ERA and 28 strikeouts on his way to being named the league's co-most outstanding pitcher. Dan Gentzler (3.13), Blair Delean (4.26), Matt Quinn (4.50), Adam Kolarek (4.68), and Ian Schwalenberg (5.13), Maryland's top five leaders in ERA from a year ago, return in 2010.

Infielder's David Poutier and Matthew Murakami, and catcher Tyler Bennett, who ranked fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively, in batting average last year, return for the Terps.

Maryland is tentatively scheduled to open the 2010 season on February 19-21 with a three-game series at Florida International.