Maryland baseball right-hander Taylor Bloom was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week after throwing seven scoreless innings in the Terps’ season opener on Friday.
Bloom matched a career high with nine strikeouts against Tennessee, scattered six hits and didn’t issue a walk. The senior’s outing helped Maryland to a 4-0 victory over the Volunteers, and the Terps split the final two games of the weekend to earn a series win.
Bloom has exhibited strong command of the strike zone throughout his career. While the Severna Park native doesn’t have the same velocity former ace Brian Shaffer had last year, Bloom’s command helped him mow down Tennessee on Friday and led to 53 strikeouts and just 25 walks last spring.
“That’s vintage Bloom right there,” coach Rob Vaughn said Friday. “He was attacking the zone all night. He was efficient with his pitches. I thought he had to battle and get his feel in the first and it was like, ‘Man, he threw a lot of pitches, let’s see how this rolls,’ and you blink and it’s the seventh inning and he’s still rolling zeros out there for you.”
Bloom struggled with inconsistency as a key part of last year’s starting pitching rotation but finished with a 7-2 record and a 3.83 ERA in 89.1 innings pitched.
Bloom earned the Friday gig to start the season, but left-hander Tyler Blohm, who gave up two runs in 5.1 innings in Maryland’s 10-4 win on Sunday, could swap places with Bloom as the season progresses.
Given the Terps’ inexperienced bullpen, it could be imperative that Bloom and the rest of the starting rotation work deep into games if the squad is to qualify for its fourth NCAA tournament in the past five years.
