Around the Horn: Nebraska baseball heads to No. 23 Maryland

The Nebraska baseball team (24-17-1) will hit the road to face off against nationally ranked Maryland (31-15). The Huskers are coming off their second straight Wednesday loss, but will look to put that in the rearview as they head to College Park. This will be the Big Red’s first bout against a ranked opponent since the Cambria College Classic in March when they beat No. 7 Vanderbilt and lost to No 4. Ole Miss.

The Terrapins are the hottest team in the Big Ten coming off eight straight wins that includes a sweep over Indiana. Most recently, Maryland trounced Delaware 19-7 in a midweek matchup.

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Projecting the pitching

Note: These are projections and will be updated once starting rotations are officially announced.

Friday, 5:30 p.m., LHP Emmett Olson (5-2, 4.06 ERA, 62 IP, 65 K) vs. TBA

Saturday, 1:00 p.m., RHP Jace Kaminska (6-3, 3.91 ERA, 50.2 IP, 34 K) vs. TBA

Sunday, 12:00 p.m., TBA vs. TBA

What to watch for the Huskers

Friday struggles

After winning eight straight Friday games this year, Nebraska hit a skid. The Big Red have lost the last two series openers to Iowa and Minnesota, both by multiple runs. A lot of that is down to the pitching.

In the past two Friday games, NU has scored six and seven runs respectively. Commonly, that is enough for this team to win a game. However, the story has been different on Fridays. Between those last two weeks, the Huskers have allowed a combined 20 runs, putting them in a position to lose both of those games.

Looking at the starter, Emmett Olson has come out flat in his last two outings. Against the Hawkeyes, the lefty survived just two and a third innings after allowing five runs on six hits. From a statistical standpoint this game was an outlier. Olson has pitched at least five innings in nine of his 11 outings this season.

Last week against Minnesota was another week that the junior did pitch at least five inning, going six innings deep. However, in the first two innings of that game, Olson allowed four runs and NU found themselves in a hole.

In order to surprise the Terrapins and take the Friday game, Olson, or whoever takes the Friday role, will have to be at the top of his game.

An opponent who’s ranked and ready

Make no mistake about it, Maryland are one of the hottest teams in college baseball at this point in time. After a week of not being ranked, the Terps have continued their win streak, extending it to eight, and wound up in the national rankings. According to D1Baseball, Maryland is the 23rd best team in the country, but they have only been rising.

The Terrapins are undefeated when it comes to conference series this season, with five series wins. Looking at those series, they have been against some of the better teams in the conference. Maryland has taken down Iowa, Rutgers, Ohio State, and Purdue each by a series score of 2-1. Three of those four teams are above .500 in conference play, with one of them (Iowa) having swept the Huskers.

Now looking at last weekend, Maryland took it up a notch. The Terps played against a strong Indiana team who had a .738 win percentage. UMD made quick work of the Hoosiers, taking them down by at least six runs in every game, and scoring a total of 43 runs across the three games.

Add onto that, the Terps took down Delaware 19-7 heading into this game, there aren’t many teams hotter than Maryland.

Home run heavy series

The top six home run hitters in the Big Ten all play for the two teams facing off in College Park this weekend.

Maryland’s Matt Shaw leads the conference with 18 homers, but Brice Matthews follows closely behind with 17. Below is the full list of the six players, but from what we’ve seen from these two lineups, there is a strong chance we see a lot of batters go yard.

Index	Player	Home Runs
1	Matt Shaw (UMD)	18
2	Brice Matthews (NEB)	17
3	Nick Lorusso (UMD)	17
4	Max Anderson (NEB)	16
5	Gabe Swansen (NEB)	13
6	Elijah Lambros (UMD)	13

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Nebraska baseball notes

***The Huskers last faced the Terrapins in Nebraska’s Big Ten title winning season, taking UMD down 2-1 in the series.

***Brice Matthews is one of three players in college baseball to have at least 15 home runs and 15 steals. Matthews has 17 homers and 17 stolen bases.

***Jace Kaminska has sat down 17 batters looking this season, putting him in eighth in the conference in that statistic.

***Kaminska has also allowed the least amount of walks in the Big Ten conference when it comes to starting pitching with 11 walks.

Know the foe: Maryland

***The Terrapins have won eight straight games which includes two wins over Purdue, a win over UMBC, Georgetown, Deleware and a three-game sweep of Indiana.

***Maryland leads the conference in runs scored, with 420. The next closest team is Iowa with 355.

***Nick Lorusso has the most RBIs in the Big Ten, knocking 69 runs home.

***Luke Shliger leads the conference in free bases. He has been hit 19 times and walked 43 times.

***Five of the top six players with the most walks in the Big Ten are from UMD. They earn a lot of walks.

Around the Big Ten

Here are a few Big Ten series to keep tabs on this weekend:

Indiana (31-14, 9-6 Big Ten) @ Northwestern (8-31, 3-12 Big Ten)

Michigan State (27-13, 9-5 Big Ten) @ Illinois (19-22, 8-10 Big Ten)

Michigan (22-20, 9-6 Big Ten) @ Minnesota (12-30, 5-10 Big Ten)

Ohio State (22-23, 5-13 Big Ten) @ Iowa (32-11, 8-6 Big Ten)

Conference Standings

SCHOOL	CONF	PCT	HOME	ROAD	OVERALL	PCT	HOME	ROAD	NEUTRAL	LAST 10	STREAK
Maryland	11-4	.733	4-2	7-2	31-15	.674	14-6	17-6	0-3	9-1	W8
Michigan State	9-5	.643	6-2	3-3	27-13	.675	12-3	10-7	5-3	7-3	W4
Indiana	9-6	.600	5-4	4-2	31-14	.689	22-4	8-9	1-1	7-3	L3
Nebraska	9-6	.600	7-2	2-4	24-17-1	.583	12-6	7-9-1	5-2	3-6	L1
Michigan	9-6	.600	6-3	3-3	22-20	.524	12-9	6-6	4-5	4-6	W1
Iowa	8-6	.571	4-2	4-4	32-11	.744	17-2	7-8	8-1	8-2	W1
Purdue	10-8	.556	6-3	4-5	21-22	.488	9-7	4-11	8-4	6-4	L1
Rutgers	8-7	.533	3-3	5-4	27-18	.600	11-3	15-13	1-2	8-2	W2
Illinois	8-10	.444	5-4	3-6	19-22	.463	6-7	9-13	4-2	4-6	L2
Penn State	6-8	.429	5-3	1-5	24-15	.615	14-4	2-9	8-2	6-4	W1
Minnesota	5-10	.333	2-4	3-6	12-30	.286	7-13	5-10	0-7	2-8	L2
Ohio State	5-13	.278	4-5	1-8	22-23	.489	11-7	6-12	5-4	4-6	L1
Northwestern	3-12	.200	2-4	1-8	8-31	.205	4-5	4-24	0-2	3-7	W1

Broadcast information

TV: Big Ten Plus (ALL THREE GAMES): LINK HERE

Radio: Huskers Radio Network (Radio simulcast found LINK HERE)

Stations: Lincoln (1400 AM), Omaha (590 AM)