The Maryland baseball team has been here before.
The Terps qualifed for their conference tournament for the third consecutive year. They’ve played at a higher level in the postseason the past two times around, advancing to the tournament’s championship before qualifying for the Super Regionals.
Despite losing eight players this offseason between the MLB draft and graduation, 12 players have past experience playing in the postseason.
And while the odds are stacked against the Terps, who enter the event as the sixth seed, they’re confident their experience can help them make a deep tournament run. That journey that begins Wednesday morning against No. 3-seed Indiana (31-22, 15-9 Big Ten).
“Experience is something that, you can talk about it a lot, but [first baseman Kevin] Biondic’s lived it and [right fielder Anthony] Papio’s lived it,” coach John Szefc said. “You can’t just go out and buy that experience, or simulate it. We’re able to send a guy like [right-hander Mike] Shawaryn out there Wednesday who’s got as much postseason experience as anybody and then some.”
This past weekend, Maryland (28-25, 13-11) knew it needed to win its series against Michigan State to put itself in a good position to make the eight-team conference field. So the Terps treated the three-game set as a playoff series, and Szefc said his experienced players helped lead Maryland to a 2-1 series victory.
Each day, a different veteran led the Terps.
Shawaryn threw a complete game in Maryland’s 6-3 win Thursday. At the plate, sophomore shortstop Kevin Smith, who played all 66 contests last season, and junior catcher Nick Cieri combined to go 5-for-9 from the plate with two RBIs.
The Terps lost, 4-3, in 13 innings Friday, but right-hander Taylor Bloom, who started in the Super Regionals last season, allowed two earned runs in 6.2 innings. Papio, the lone senior on offense, went 3-for-6 from the plate and was a home run short of hitting for the cycle.
On Sunday, right-hander Brian Shaffer went on to pitch eight innings after a ball struck his right knee the opening frame. And with the game tied at four in the seventh, Biondic, who played in the Super Regionals last season, came through with a two-RBI single to give the Terps their first lead. Biondic finished 3-for-4 from the plate, and Maryland ended the series with a 6-4 victory.
“No one really wants to get in there and fight with us,” Biondic said. “We can go down, 3-0, 4-0, early and we’re not out of the game. We’re never out of the game.”
Biondic said the Terps have developed that mindset from Papio, who has played in both the program’s Super Regionals and keeps a positive attitude regardless of his team’s performance. Plus, Biondic said there’s more camaraderie with this year’s team than last year’s squad.
“To have guys like Anthony Papio and [senior left-hander] Robert Galligan, and the sophomores from this year who went through it last year, it’s a big help,” Shaffer said.
Last year, the Terps won their first three games of the conference tournament as the No. 4 seed before falling to Michigan in the conference championship. Their showing helped the program earn a spot in the NCAA field, and they escaped No. 1 overall seed UCLA to win the Los Angeles Regional.
The Terps have been inconsistent at times this year, but they remain hopeful that they can put together a similar run this season.
“This team just wants to battle, and we just want to fight,” Biondic said. “It doesn’t really matter what seed we are in the tournament. Nobody wants to face us.”
