A Leader In The Leadoff

In the third inning of Maryland's regular-season finale against Penn State, Luke Shliger found himself in a familiar position — standing at third base, just 90 feet away from tying the score. 

But the Terps' All-Big Ten catcher was not just in scoring position, but in record-breaking position. As he stood at third, he positioned himself just a batted ball away from scoring the 182nd run of his collegiate career and breaking a two-decade Maryland program record held by current associate head coach Matt Swope.

When Ian Petrutz lifted a fly ball deep to right field, Shliger jogged home standing up, thus again etching his name into the Maryland program record books.

The club runs record was not on Shliger's radar until Swope brought it to his attention in the weeks leading up to the Terps' final Big Ten series. Scoring runs was second nature, a byproduct of his uncanny ability to get on base in the leadoff spot and having two more All-Big Ten bats following right after him in the lineup.

"I give a lot of credit to the guys behind me because I'm getting on-base, but it takes the guys behind me to help score me," Shliger said. "I can do my part by trying to get in scoring position as much as possible either by hitting an extra base hit or grabbing a bag when I can. But it was pretty cool to have a record here and I had no clue that I was even approaching it until Coach Swope mentioned it."

Scoring runs was second nature, a byproduct of his uncanny ability to get on base in the leadoff spot and having two more All-Big Ten bats following right after him in the lineup.

“It’s not a single-person award because that record means you also have some dudes behind you,” Maryland Head Coach Rob Vaughn said. “And I think it probably feels good down deep that he knocked Swoper off so he can hold that over his head a little bit.”

From Swope's perspective, Shliger breaking his record points to the bigger picture of the program moving forward from his days as a player from 1999 until 2002. He feels proud knowing that his production has helped the squad put together two of the best campaigns in Maryland history.

"He did it in three years, as opposed to me playing four years, so he's just been way more productive than I was as a whole," Swope said. "Even though it's my record that he broke, you know that you're moving a program along with better players and more production. That makes me just as proud seeing these guys that I'm coaching and working with everyday break it because it means we're moving the program along and growing it like we should."

Few players embody the growth of Maryland baseball quite like Shliger, whose rise into one of the top catching prospects heading into the summer's MLB Draft has been meteoric, not dissimilar to the program's trajectory. 

The junior from Danbury, CT, has been leading the charge into the Terps' third consecutive NCAA regional appearance in many ways by doing things not typically seen out of the backstop position. Shliger is a catcher who not only hits in the leadoff position but produces tremendous statistical numbers in all facets of the game. He is a career .322 hitter in a position not typically known for offensive firepower. He has reached base at a .519 clip while getting on base in a program-record 54 consecutive outings. He is a five-tool player who has racked up double-digit home runs and steals in back-to-back campaigns.

He has also developed into a leader in the clubhouse, donning the No. 3 captain's jersey for his junior season in a decision voted on by the players themselves. Picking up a legacy carried on by many legendary Dirty Terps was a challenge that Shliger embraced, knowing the pressure that comes with that number.

"Wearing No. 3 compared to 27 in the past few years, I think there's more of an emphasis on being a leader," Shliger said. "My first two years I just let the energy that I played with be a part of leadership because people kind of follow that. But I think when you wear the number, it represents something more than that, so I just had to be even more responsible and more verbalizing in my leadership."

Shliger's breakout and development into a leader for Maryland's push for a Big Ten and NCAA Championship over the last two seasons have been years in the making. When the Terps recruited him out of Trinity-Pawling School, they saw a versatile player who could be positioned anywhere on the diamond and thrive. When Swope spoke to Shliger over the phone, he could tell he was a mature baseball player who would fit the program's culture.

"[He's] just a well-mannered kid who spoke really well for his age, which is sometimes challenging for a kid that's 13 or 15 years old," Swope said. "So he just made a strong first impression, but how he carried himself on the field and how competitive he was always is something that we're kind of looking for in the recruiting process."

Shliger's readiness at the collegiate level was tested early, as Maryland played him as a freshman in 34 games and faced his fair share of struggles. He made the 2021 Big Ten All-Freshman Team but struggled to find his footing in the lineup and wasn't producing numbers like he had in high school.

Despite not hitting at a high level in his debut season, Swope believes that Shliger's freshman year was a necessary step in the maturation process to be prepared for the difficulties that come in college and pro ball.

"He definitely contributed as a freshman, but most of these kids as freshmen have never dealt with failure, so I liked how he had to kind of go through that a little bit," Swope said. "Just seeing him grow through that failure is a lot of time what makes or breaks kids' careers. Some can handle it, some just can't."

Between his freshman and sophomore year, Shliger made what Swope called 'one of the largest steps he's seen in 11 years'. The second-year backstop went from barely keeping his average above .200 to hitting over .350. All statistical aspects of his game improved drastically as he set the program single-season run record with 79 and finished among the top five single-season record holders in six other statistical categories.

Much of the overhaul came from building confidence at the plate and establishing a strong sense of identity, and with more at-bats, Shliger saw his production reach the level he believed he was capable of.

"I knew I was a really good hitter, and I think over 200 at-bats my sophomore year, people kind of saw that come to light," Shliger said. "I think that's just the biggest thing in baseball is when you're getting acclimated to a new level of baseball, it's just getting at-bats, getting your feet wet. And that all helps you build an identity and you start to understand what makes you good." 

Another transition Shliger underwent between his first two seasons in College Park came from his position in the lineup. For much of his freshman year, Shliger was slotted in second behind Chris Alleyne. The two remained in those positions throughout fall scrimmages in 2021, but about a month out from Opening Day of 2022, head coach Rob Vaughn flip-flopped the two in the lineup. 

That put Shliger at the top of the lineup, a position he had rarely operated in.

"Rob and I talked just going all in to say, 'We can easily hit Shig second, but this is a better lineup when he's leading off and moving Bubba down a spot,'" Swope said. "That was a huge decision and we did it from the jump. And that was big. So you know, when you pull a kid aside and you say, 'You're gonna lead off. We want you to set the table for this offense,' that's a huge responsibility."

Vaughn wanted Shliger to keep his same approach and do the exact same thing at the top of the lineup that he was doing in the two-hole, which proved dividends for the Terps last season as Shliger set the single-season runs record and Alleyne drove in 79 RBI, second in program history at the time.

"The transition was easy," Shliger said. "I just knew that if I stuck to the player that I was at the time that I would have success in the one hole, and obviously we ended up having a lot of successes."

In the past two years, he's been the driving force of the Maryland offense at the top of the order, as Swope described Shliger as 'the best leadoff hitter he's ever seen.'

"He’s the best leadoff hitter I’ve ever coached, by far one of the best I’ve ever seen,” Vaughn said. “He can just do everything. He can hit for power, he walks all the time, he competes with two strikes and he’s just a really complete hitter. We’ve had really good ones in the past, but his ability to execute the strike zone and control that is what makes him a separator.”

"The offense goes as he goes, plain and simple," Swope said. "All we talk about here from an offensive perspective is swing decisions and getting on base, so he's the quintessential you know poster boy for that."

Since moving to the leadoff spot, Shliger has set the table for the last two seasons with great poise out of the leadoff spot. While his ability to get base knocks remains strong by hitting over .330 in back-to-back campaigns, the Terps' captain has used his plate discipline and vision to find more ways to get on base. 

Entering the Big Ten Tournament, Shliger ranks second nationally by drawing 60 walks, two shy of tying the Big Ten record in that category. He also paces a Maryland team that leads the nation in walks entering postseason action. 

Playing behind the plate has allowed Shliger to get a strong sense of each umpire's individual strike zone, and the coaching staff's emphasis on swing decisions has led to a consistent performance at the plate, as Shliger's quality at-bat percentage tracked by the team has been over 60% over the last two seasons.

"We hold our hats on knowing the zone as an offense, and that's helped me personally," Shliger said. "I think with the framework of owning the zone I had coming into school has only got better with the things we do on a day-to-day basis."

The work that comes with plate vision in the offseason comes from how Shliger uses the pitching machine as a tool for getting good swings in and learning how to read the plate. There will be times when Shliger will take a round of eight pitches down the middle, but more often than not, he likes to stay guessing on his pitches.

When Shliger is working with coaches in the batting cage, he will look away from the coaches as they adjust the pitching machine, then turn his head back as the pitch is coming in so he can practice making split-second swing decisions instead of knowing where the ball is coming in.

"It's so easy to put a machine on and take a round of eight with the pitch right down the middle because everyone can do that," Shliger said. "It's what makes you good hitters when your swing decisions can be as late as possible and you're still efficient with your swing. You're just going to trust yourself seeing the ball deeper and making your swing decision later, and that that really helps on breaking balls and all chase pitches."

Shliger also gets on base at a high rate via his prowess in getting hit by pitches. With 22 hit-by-pitches on the season, the junior is tied for 10th in the country in that metric and is tied with Maxwell Costes' 2022 output for the most by a Terp in a single season.

His ability to eat pitches thrown at him comes from a strong ability to crowd the plate, which is cultivated by the team's desire to get on base by any means, even if it means a temporary bruise.

"If a pitcher is gonna make a mistake like that, we might as well not reward them," Shliger said. "That creates some fear as a pitching staff against us because if you're gonna pull a ball into our box, if you're gonna miss a pitch or pull a breaking ball, we're not going to move out of the way and give you the benefit. We're gonna hold our ground, and that's gonna force you to throw balls over the plate, and I think all of that goes into why we're so good as an offense."

Once on base, Shliger has the wheels to manufacture his own runs with speed not usually seen out of the catching position. This season, he is second on the squad with 10 steals and has the instinct to read balls in play.

"He's sneakily one of the best base runners in the whole conference," Swope said. "The way that he gets around bases, he's an elite base stealer, he goes from second to third. He has great instincts and all those little intangibles that sometimes are lost in today's game of power and velocity."

His offensive prowess, his leadership with the Terps' pitching staff behind the plate, and his defensive strength have led many scouts to rate Shliger as one of the top catching prospects in the country. In May, D1 Baseball listed him as the No. 2 collegiate catcher in their positional rankings, and he is expected to be taken early in the 2023 MLB Draft.

Swope said that at the next level, the two traits Shliger possesses that will serve him well are his love of baseball and his streak as a relentless competitor.

"A lot of kids like baseball, per se, and they had a really good experience in college, but you have to love baseball to be a professional baseball player and excel," Swope said. "The grind is like no other — the bus rides, the amount of games, the early work — and he loves the game and he's a relentless competitor."

As Shliger enters the home stretch of his Maryland career, his sights are set on bringing home the Terps' first Big Ten Tournament title and making the College World Series for the first time in program history to draw his stalwart collegiate career to a close.