OMAHA, NE – On the back of an excellent start from Jason Savacool, top-seeded and No. 23 ranked Maryland is headed back to the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game for the first time since 2015 after beating fourth-seeded Nebraska, 4-2, Saturday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field Omaha. The Terps (40-19 overall) reached their second-ever B1G Tournament final, winning 40 games in a season for the fourth time in program history and the second year in a row.
In the final, Maryland will face No. 3 seeded Iowa, whose undefeated path to the final mirrors that of the Terps, winning all three games in the Big Ten Tournament. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT, and the action will air on Big Ten Network and the Maryland Baseball Network.
Maryland's last and only other appearance in the title game came in 2015, when the Terps were edged by Michigan, 4-3.
Savacool (8-5) started for the Terps two days after guiding Maryland to victory over the Huskers in relief and conducted a masterclass on the mound. In six shutout innings, Savacool only allowed four hits and struck out six on an economical 86 pitches.
The junior started his outing with consecutive three up, three down innings while retiring the first seven batters he faced. After Nebraska recorded its first hit of the game in the third, Savacool stayed cool with a runner on third by recording a strikeout of Brice Matthews. In the next frame, the Baldwinsville, NY native struck out the side while stranding a runner in scoring position.
In the sixth inning, the Huskers got two runners on with nobody out, but the task was no problem for the right-hander. He induced a double play on a comebacker to himself and kept Nebraska off the board by leaving runners on the corner with a flyout to end the threat.
Behind Savacool, Kenny Lippman maintained the shutout heading into the ninth inning, striking out three Huskers in two innings of action. After inheriting the bases loaded with no one out in the ninth, Andrew Johnson picked up the save by only allowing two Nebraska runs to cross the plate. He picked up his first save of 2023 by getting the final three outs with a strikeout and a pair of flyouts.
The bottom of the Terps' order came through in a major way all afternoon, as Maryland's No. 5-9 hitters collectively hit 9-for-19 and scored all four runs. The production from The Pack began in the top of the second inning, as three runs came across in that portion of the lineup. After the Terps got runners on the corners with nobody out, Elijah Lambros executed the safety squeeze to perfection by driving in Eddie Hacopian on an RBI bunt single. Two batters later, Kevin Keister tacked on two more runs with a two-run single to give Maryland an early cushion.
Hacopian added another run in the middle innings, blasting a solo home run to left field to add some insurance to the early lead.
Hacopian starred for the Terps in the middle of the lineup, going 2-for-4 at the plate with a home run, a double and two runs scored. Keister drove in two RBI while Lambros produced a multi-hit outing by going 2-for-4 with an RBI. Jacob Orr's 3-for-4 performance also aided in the offensive output.
At the top of the lineup, Luke Shliger broke two records with a trio of walks. Shliger's base-on-balls season total reached 64 to set the single-season B1G record in that category. Additionally, the Danbury, CT drew his 131st in the first inning, surpassing Chris Cannan (1991-94) for the most walks in a Maryland baseball career.
Breaking Down The Action
- Maryland got on the board first in the second inning, as Lambros drove in Hacopian with a well-placed RBI bunt single.
- Two more runs came across in the second, as the Terps took a 3-0 lead on a two-run single from Keister.
- Hacopian extended the lead with a solo home run in the fifth inning, boosting Maryland's edge to 4-0.
- Nebraska collected a pair of runs in the ninth inning, making it a 4-1 contest with a Cole Evans RBI knock and a sacrifice fly from Brice Matthews.
Tournament History
- Maryland is now 13-9 all-time in Big Ten Tournament play dating to the 2015 tourney.
- The Terps have played in the 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023 tournaments.
- Maryland's best finish came in its first event in 2015, falling to Michigan in the Big Ten Championship game. The Terps won three games in that tournament.
- With the victory, the Terps have made their deepest run in the Big Ten Tournament since 2017, when Maryland won three games and advanced to the semifinals.
40 Wins!
- The Terps won 40 games in a season for the fourth time in program history.
- Maryland set a school record with 48 wins last season, going 48-14.
- The Terps won 40 for the first time in 2014, going 40-23, advancing to the NCAA Super Regionals and winning the Columbia Regional.
- A year later, Maryland bettered its win total, going 42-24 in 2015, on the way to the NCAA Regionals, capturing the Los Angeles Regional.
By The Numbers
- 1: Johnson recorded his first save of the season.
- 5: Orr recorded his fifth three-hit performance of the campaign.
- 7: Hacopian's fifth-inning solo shot marked his seventh home run of 2023.
- 20: Shaw's 20-game hit streak came to an end.
- 22: Hacopian notched his 22nd multi-hit effort this year.
- 40: The Terps won 40 games in a season for the fourth time in history and the second year in a row.
- 49: Shaw's reached-base streak also concluded at 49 games.
- 57: Shliger's record-setting reached-base streak advanced to 57 games on a leadoff walk in the first inning.
- 64: With two walks, Shliger broke the B1G single-season walks record with 64 walks, surpassing 62, a mark most recently reached by Purdue's David Black in 2009.
- 133: With his first-inning walk, Shliger broke the Maryland program record for career walks, passing Chris Cannan (1991-94), who held the record with 130.
Up Next
- The Terps will compete in their second-ever Big Ten Tournament title final in a showdown Sunday afternoon against No. 3 Iowa. The contest will start at approximately 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT and air on Big Ten Network and the Maryland Baseball Network.
