WEST LAFAYETTE, IN -- BIG TEN CHAMPS!
No. 14 Maryland won its first Big Ten Championship in baseball on Friday evening as the Terps beat Purdue, 18-7, at Alexander Field. The Terps won the outright Big Ten title and will be the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. The Terps stand at 18-5 in the conference and add to its best record in program history, moving to 44-10.
The Terps last won a conference championship in 1971 when the Terps won the ACC. Overall, this is the fifth conference title for the Terps, as they also won the ACC in 1965 and 1970 and the Southern Conference in 1936. Maryland's last outright conference title in baseball was in 1965.
Matt Shaw smashed his 20th of the season to put the Terps up for good in the sixth inning, making it 7-5 at the time. Shaw went 4-for-5 with two homers, four runs scored and five RBIs and now has 63 RBIs this season to go along with his 21 home runs, second in the Big Ten .
Chris Alleyne went 2-for-4 with two homers and five RBIs as he leads the Big Ten in homers with 22 and RBIs with 73.
Freshman
Ian Petrutz went 3-for-5 with a home run -- for the fourth game in a row -- and three RBIs.
Troy Schreffler Jr., and
Kevin Keister also drove in runs.
Luke Shliger also hit a home run to give the Terps six homers in the game -- the third time this season they blasted six long balls.
On the mound,
Nick Dean earned the win to move to 6-2 throwing the first five innings.
Nigel Belgrave pitched two innings in relief.
David Falco Jr., finished off the eighth and ninth, including recording the final out to clinch the championship with a strikeout.
Breaking Down The Action
• The Terps jumped out to 1-0 lead as Alleyne crushed his fourth homer in as many games to right field.
• The Boilermakers grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second inning as Cam Thompson and Evan Albrecht drove in runs.
• Alleyne walked with the bases loaded to bring in Maxwell Costes in the top of the fourth to tie the game at 2-2.
• The Terps took a 3-2 lead on Schreffler Jr.'s bloop single which scored Matt Shaw who singled to right and raced all the way to third on a fielding error. Another Maryland run came home on an Ian Petrutz single to center, which was misplayed by the Purdue centerfielder, which allowed Schreffler to come around to score, making it 4-2. After a pitching change, Keister's drive to right field brought home Petrutz for a three-run edge, 5-2.
• Purdue evened the game at 5-5 on a two-run homer by Paul Toetz in the bottom of the fifth inning.
• Shaw's two-run homer to center regained the lead for Maryland at 7-5 as he brought in Nick Lorusso, who singled in front of him.
• Alleyne blasted his second homer of the game, a three-run shot, to make it 10-5 in the seventh. Shaw's double to center scored Lorusso, for an 11-5 lead. A wild pitch allowed Shaw to score for a 12-5 advantage.
• Shliger his a solo home run, Shaw added a two-run blast, and Petrutz knocked a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth to drive in six extra insurance runs for the Terps.
Team Numbers To Know
• 1: Maryland won its first-ever Big Ten Championship.
• 2: The Terps now have two players (Chris Alleyne and Matt Shaw) with 20 home runs in a season for the first time ever.
• 5: Maryland won its fifth-ever conference championship (1936 Southern, 1965 ACC, 1970 ACC, 1971 ACC, 2022 Big Ten).
• 6: Maryland hit six home runs for the third time this season.
• 10: The Terps scored 10 or more runs for the 10 time in 12 games and 22 times this season.
• 18: Maryland added to its school-record for conference wins a season, now at 18-5.
• 18: Maryland's 18 hits were the second-most in a game this season, and most in a Big Ten game.
• 19: Maryland added to its school-record for road wins in a season, now at 19-7.
• 21: The Terps are now 21-4 when scoring in the first inning of a game this season.
• 33: The Terps are now 33-7 when scoring first in the game.
• 44: Maryland won its school-record 44th game, as the Terps surpassed the former record of 42, set in 2015.
• 45: As an athletic program, Maryland has won 45 Big Ten Championships total since joining the conference in 2014-15. That includes both regular-season and tournament titles.
• 121: Maryland is second in the nation in most home runs with 121. Only Tennessee (133) has more.
Player Numbers To Know
• 2: Alleyne hit two homers in a game for the fourth time this season.
• 2: Shaw hit two homers in a game for the fifth time this season.
• 2: Dean picked off his second base-runner of the season, in the fourth inning. The Terps have six pickoffs as a team.
• 3: Dean won his third game in a row to improve to 6-2 on the season.
• 4: Alleyne homered for the fourth game in a row, with his first inning blast, with two in the game, he has five in his last four games.
• 4: Petrutz has homered in four straight games.
• 5: Alleyne had five or more RBIs in a game for the third time this season.
• 5: Shaw had five RBIs in a game for the second time this season, second only to his eight-RBI game vs. Michigan.
• 6: Petrutz has a six-game hitting streak, batting 12-of-26 over the span (.462).
• 8: Costes now has a eight-game hit streak, hitting .385 (10-for-26).
• 9: Zmarzlak now has an nine-game hit streak, hitting .390 (16-for-41) over the span.
• 9: Petrutz now has nine multi-hit games this season.
• 14: Luke Shliger threw out his 14th runner attempting to steal in the game (making him 14-of-44 on the season, 32 percent on throwing base-stealers out.
• 17: Shaw had his 17th multi-hit game of the season.
• 20: Shaw hit his 20th and 21st homers of the season, becoming the second Terp this season and third ever to hit 20 homers in a season, joining his teammate Alleyne.
• 22: Alleyne is the second all-time in single-season home runs with 22, second only to Derek Hacopian (23 in 1992).
• 36: Alleyne now has 36 career home runs, third-most in a career at Maryland, behind Maxwell Costes (39) and Paul Schager (43 from 1984-87).
• 67: Alleyne now has 67 runs scored, the fourth-most in a season in Maryland history, behind his teammate Luke Shliger (70) and
• 71: Luke Shliger set the school record for runs scored in a season on Friday. He now has 71, topping the record of 70 by Chris Stark set in 1985.
• 73: Alleyne has 73 RBIs, making him the third Terp with 70 or more RBIs in a season behind Hacopian (83 in 1992) and John McCurdy (77 in 2002).
Up Next
• The Terps are scheduled to wrap up the three-game series at Purdue on Saturday at 1 p.m. The game air on Big Ten Network and the Maryland Baseball Network.
• Maryland will be the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and play on Wednesday, May 25 at 5 p.m. CT, that game will also air on Big Ten Network and the Maryland Baseball Network.
-- TERPS --
