• Baseball
  • Maryland Terrapins Defeat The Iowa Hawkeyes To Win The 2023 Big Ten Baseball Title

Maryland Terrapins Defeat The Iowa Hawkeyes To Win The 2023 Big Ten Baseball Title

Details
Baseball

Maryland baseball won its first-ever Big Ten Tournament Championship beating Iowa, 4-0, Sunday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. The top-seeded and No. 23 ranked Terps (41-19 overall) secured the Big Ten's NCAA Tournament automatic qualifier with the victory. Maryland will learn about its NCAA Tournament and Regional on Monday at Noon on ESPN2 in the Selection Show.

Maryland won its first-ever conference tournament championship in history spanning both the ACC and Big Ten. The Terps were playing in their second-ever Big Ten Tournament Championship Game, advancing to the final in 2015.

After five innings of scoreless baseball, the Terps broke through for three runs in the fifth inning on a pair of home runs from Kevin Keister and Nick Lorusso. Facing the formidable Jack Whitlock, Keister opened by turning on a breaking ball and belting a two-run jack into the Maryland bullpen. Three batters later, Lorusso hit his 23rd home run of the season on a high fly ball that just cleared the left-field fence.

On Sunday, Maryland's pitching staff continued its tournament brilliance in a collective effort, as the five pitchers used by Rob Vaughn recorded the Terps' second Big Ten Tournament shutout ever. In total, the Terps only gave up five runs across Big Ten Tournament action for a 1.22 ERA.

The Terps posted their first Big Ten Tournament shutout since 2016 (a 3-0 win over Indiana) and just the second-ever in a Big Ten Tournament Championship game with the only other one coming in 1989 when Illinois beat Michigan, 2-0, to claim the title. 

Kenny Lippman (8-1) earned the win with a dominant performance in relief, setting down all eight Hawkeyes he faced. After entering the fourth inning with two runners on base, the fifth-year right-hander induced a double play and a soft groundout to keep Iowa (42-14) off the board. In his next two frames, Lippman retired the side in order to allow for the offensive outburst.

Before Lippman's appearance, Ryan Van Buren earned the starting nod for the final, opening with two innings of scoreless ball while working himself out a pair of Iowa scoring opportunities. In both the first and second, the Hawkeyes got runners on first and second, but the freshman right-hander got Maryland out of both situations. Andrew Johnson came on in the third frame, pitching one inning and getting the Terps out of the inning after a two-out double. 

Lippman exited after the sixth inning, leaving Nate Haberthier and David Falco Jr. to handle the seventh. After a leadoff walk, Falco coaxed a double play to keep Iowa scoreless.

Falco closed out the contest for the Terps, tossing 2.2 scoreless frames while striking out a pair of Hawkeyes, .

The Maryland offense added another run in the sixth inning, as Jacob Orr's RBI single padded the lead after an Eddie Hacopian leadoff double.

Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player Lorusso notched his 99th RBI of the season, extending his nation-leading total, while Keister recorded his 13th multi-RBI contest of the campaign. Hacopian notched his second consecutive multi-hit effort, going 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Additionally, Luke Shliger extended his 58-game reached-base streak with a hit-by-pitch and a walk.

Breaking Down The Action

  • Maryland opened the scoring in the fifth inning, going up 2-0 on a two-run home run from Keister.
  • Lorusso added a solo shot of his own later in the fifth inning, putting the Terps up 3-0.
  • Orr drove in an insurance run for Maryland, extending the advantage to 4-0 with an RBI single in the sixth inning.

Tournament Champions

  • This marks the first time Maryland baseball has ever won a conference tournament championship, having played in the ACC (1973-78, 1980-2014) and the Big Ten (2015-present) Tournaments.
  • Overall, it marks the seventh conference championship for baseball, including six regular-season titles, having won the Southern Conference in 1936, the ACC in 1965, 1970 and 1971 and the Big Ten the last two years in 2022 and 2023.
  • In all sports, this was Maryland's 49th Big Ten Championship (including regular-season and tournament titles) since joining the Big Ten in 2014-15. Only Michigan (78) and Ohio State (59) have more since Maryland joined the conference. 
  • The Terps have now won 19 Big Ten Tournament Championships in six different sports: women's basketball (5), men's lacrosse (4), women's lacrosse (4), men's soccer (3), field hockey (2), and baseball (1).