A season after it won 30 games and earned a spot in the Big Ten tournament semifinals, the Maryland baseball team enters the 2017 campaign at No. 23, according to Perfect Game’s rankings.
Maryland is the lone Big Ten team in that preseason poll, which the organization released Wednesday. The Terps were left out of D1baseball.com’s preseason Top 25.
The Terps return a pair of weekend starting pitchers and seven players who appeared in their 2016 starting lineup. Junior right-handers Taylor Bloom and Brian Shaffer, who both logged more than 100 innings last season, sophomore outfielder Marty Costes and sophomore second baseman Nick Dunn were All-Big Ten selections a year ago.
Dunn and Costes were freshmen All-Americans last summer, and Perfect Game/Rawlings named junior shortstop Kevin Smith a preseason All-American on Tuesday.
Maryland, which has won at least 30 games in each of coach John Szefc’s four seasons, is seeking a return to the postseason after making an NCAA Super Regional in 2014 and 2015.
