Mike Shawaryn prepares to throw a pitch during the Terps’ 10-1 win over Iowa at Bob “Turtle” Smith Field on April 10, 2015.
The Terrapins baseball team began its three-game weekend series at Purdue with a record-setting performance and ended it with a ninth-inning comeback.
Terps right-hander Mike Shawaryn earned his 21st career win Friday to set a program record, and the Terps scored three runs in the final frame two days later to emerge with a one-run victory and complete the sweep.
Those two highlights bookended a successful weekend for the No. 21 Terps, who broke out of an offensive slump and snapped a three-game losing streak on a weekend during which John Szefc reached 100 wins faster than any coach in school history.
“It’s hard to win three games,” Szefc said. “Hard to sweep a series on the road; I don’t care who you’re playing.”
Before this weekend, the Terps (30-13, 11-4 Big Ten) had scored two runs in their previous three games. But in Friday’s doubleheader, they tallied 19 total runs against the Boilermakers (13-31, 1-14).
In Game 1, Shawaryn recorded the record-breaking win while totaling 10 strikeouts over seven scoreless innings. The Terps offense, meanwhile, scored eight runs in the first five innings during the 12-3 victory.
“[Setting the record is] something I personally didn’t really think I would ever achieve,” Shawaryn said. “Coming into last year as a freshman, all I really wanted to do was help out the team.”
Shawaryn has the most career wins of any active sophomore in the country, and he has earned victories in 10 of 11 starts this season. Plus, he’s thrown 20 straight scoreless innings.
“When he’s on the mound, he’s a monster,” catcher Kevin Martir said. “He’s always aggressive and tough, and he wants to go right at guys.”
While Shawaryn has regularly turned in quality starts throughout the season, the Terps’ other starting pitchers have struggled at times. Yet in the Terps’ 7-3 victory in Game 2, left-hander Robert Galligan allowed two runs in seven innings.
Galligan, who earned the win in his first career start, surrendered both runs in the first inning but didn’t allow another score over his final five innings. Third baseman Jose Caus broke open a 2-2 tie with a two-RBI triple in the third frame, and the Terps cruised to the win.
“They ran their offensive plan much better than they had the three games previous,” Szefc said of the Terps lineup. “We’re still kind of a work in progress.”
After jumping out to early leads Friday and Saturday, the Terps trailed the Boilermakers 3-1 after eight innings in the series finale, as left-hander Jake Drossner gave up two runs (one earned) over 4.1 innings.
But the Terps loaded the bases and rallied back. Cuas earned an RBI walk, left fielder Tim Lewis drove in a run on a fielder’s choice, and Kevin Biondic came off the bench to bunt in the winning 0run.
The comeback capped a successful weekend for the Terps, who captured their first sweep since handing Nebraska three losses in early April.
Purdue entered the series with only one win in Big Ten play, but the Terps were still happy to get back to their winning ways after a rough patch.
“It doesn’t matter how we win,” Shawaryn said. “We just want to win.”
