Sept. 22, 2009
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland Terrapins baseball team opened fall practice Tuesday at Shipley Field, marking the first time the squad has been together on the diamond since Erik Bakich was hired as head coach.
Upon arrival in College Park, Bakich set the goal of making the ACC Tournament, something the Terps haven't done since the league expanded to 12 teams in 2006, and cut the field to eight teams.
Along with assistant coaches Sean Kenny, Dan Burton and Nolan Neiman, Bakich will lead the team through more than five weeks of full-squad practices, using the time as an evaluation period in building for the 2010 season.
The Terps bring back almost all of their pitching from a season ago, with 92 percent of the innings pitched in 2009 coming from returning players.
Sander Beck, who was 2-0 with 43 strikeouts compared to just 14 walks last year, had a productive summer pitching in the Cal Ripken, Sr., Collegiate Baseball League. Beck, now a sophomore, was named the league's co-most outstanding pitcher after tallying a 1.56 ERA with Youse's Orioles. He pitched a team-high 40 1/3 innings on his way to a 6-1 record, striking out 28 batters, while holding opponents to a .192 batting average.
Overall, Maryland returns its top 11 pitchers in terms of earned run average, including Dan Gentzler, who led the team in saves (7) and ERA (3.13). The Terps will also have their leading strikeout man in Brett Harman, who fanned 75 batters last year.
Offensively, Maryland will have to deal with the loss of several talented players, but will have four players on the roster who started at least 23 games last season. David Poutier led the Terps with a .321 batting average in 2009 and started all 54 games. Matthew Murakami, Tyler Bennett, Alfredo Rodriguez, Mike Rozak and Curtis Lazar are among other returnees.
Bakich came to Maryland after spending seven seasons as an assistant with Vanderbilt, where he established himself as one of the best recruiters in college baseball. He helped sign top-25 classes each of his seven years in Nashville, including the top-ranked national class in 2005, and the second-ranked national class in 2008.
