A dozen games into the season, the Terrapin baseball team has done everything necessary to make 2011 a year of resurgence for the long-dormant program.
The Terps had a strong showing in their season-opening series at nationally ranked Texas . They took care of business against Navy, Army, Canisius and Delaware, dropping just one game against the less-heralded opponents who might have given them trouble last year.
Now, the Terps’ 2011 season and program-rebuilding efforts face another challenge: the start of ACC play with a weekend series at No. 25 Georgia Tech.
The Terps (8-4) have downplayed the importance of every opponent they’ve faced this season, opting instead to put the focus on their own play — “the game against the game,” as players call it. But with conference play and a nationally ranked opponent looming, the Terps admit that this weekend’s series is a chance for them to send a message to the rest of the ACC about the state of Terp baseball.
“It’s real important that we go in there and show a good three-game set and just show everybody else in the ACC that Maryland’s back and Maryland’s ready to play and compete in the ACC,” second baseman Ryan Holland said. “We’re not down. We’re not at the bottom of the barrel anymore. You think Maryland’s coming in, and it’s an easy weekend. It’s not going to be that, and Tech’s going to be surprised, I think.”
Conference struggles have been the norm for the Terps in recent years. They last made the eight-team ACC Tournament in 2005 and went a league-worst 5-25 in conference play last year.
But even in coach Erik Bakich’s second year in College Park, center fielder Korey Wacker said this season is “sort of our rebuilding year.”
“We want to take it with a grain of salt and show everybody this isn’t an old Terrapin team,” Wacker said. “This is a new and improved and relit Maryland Terrapin baseball.
“We’re not going to play to everybody else’s, shall I say, concerns, and how they want us to play. We’re going to go out there and play our baseball and definitely give it the best we can, and hopefully we prove some people wrong.”
Strong showings in ACC play are often enough to secure postseason berths, but even with the increasingly important games, Bakich said the program’s recent league struggles will not be a burden for the Terps as they head down to Atlanta to face the Yellow Jackets (9-4).
“The Maryland of old is absolutely a nonfactor,” Bakich said. “This program now has nothing to with the old. There is no old Maryland, and we don’t compare ourselves to any teams that have ever been in this program. This is a whole new program; this is a whole new team; these are all new players. Nobody in this program could care less what this program has done historically. It’s all us, it’s all about now, so it’s going to be good.”
After taking one of four games at No. 12 Texas, the Terps said they won’t be fazed by their second road trip of the season. Their opening series against the Longhorns came in front of a hostile crowd at Disch-Falk Field and, according to players, has prepared them for the hostile environments they will face on a regular basis in the baseball-rich ACC.
“That’s what I love so much about this program,” Wacker said. “We take on the biggest and baddest guy, and we want to take them down first. Having to go to an environment like that at Texas definitely prepares us for the future, places like Georgia Tech, Clemson, and once we ride to Florida State and such. But it definitely helps us out.”
The Terps will again play the underdog role against the Yellow Jackets. But despite Georgia Tech’s intimidating environment at Russ Chandler Stadium and the Terps’ own historical struggles, they see no reason why they can’t enjoy more surprising success in Atlanta.
When asked for a prediction for the series, Holland didn’t hesitate.
“I’m pulling two out of three,” Holland said.
schneider@umdbk.com
