Through eight seasons in the Big Ten, Maryland baseball had yet to win the Big Ten tournament title. The crown became one of the only markers of success that has eluded the Terps through their rise to becoming an annual threat to reach the College World Series — a stretch that’s included two finishes atop the conference standings.

They came close in 2015, their first year after joining the conference, but fell in the championship game.

No. 1 seed Maryland finally made it back to that stage for the first time since then Sunday. And when reliever David Falco Jr. secured the final out of a 4-0 win over No. 3 seed Iowa, his teammates rushed to meet him at the mound before leaving their feet to land on top of him.

The win gave the Terps their first Big Ten tournament championship, an occasion worthy of a dogpile.

It’s a feeling the team’s coveted for years. Finally, they’ve achieved it.

Maryland watched in dismay as UConn celebrated the same way to end last year’s College Park Regional. Since that loss nearly 12 months ago, the Terps have wanted to do the same. Sunday was their first chance to do so and it came — like it has all tournament — due to another strong showing from a collective of pitchers.

[Jason Savacool stars as Maryland baseball beats Nebraska, 4-2, to advance to Big Ten final]

Five pitchers combined to shut out the Hawkeyes — the first shutout in a Big Ten tournament championship game since 1989. It was Maryland’s third game in four days, putting additional strain on a bullpen that was tasked with winning the game after Ryan Van Buren started and went just two innings.

The Terps got three perfect innings from Kenny Lippman, whose performance capped a stellar tournament run. The right-hander, a transfer who wasn’t a member of last season’s team, didn’t allow a run in 8 ⅓ innings across three postseason appearances.

He came on after the first reliever, Andrew Johnson, walked two to open the fourth inning. Lippman induced a double play to escape unscathed and then stayed on for the fifth and sixth innings.

Soon after came Falco, who’s emerged as a trusted option for Rob Vaughn to cover multiple innings late in games over the past two weeks. His outing Sunday proved why.

Maryland’s closer came on with one out in the seventh, eight outs away from a championship. A double play ended his first inning of work. He retired the side in order in the eighth. And for the final three outs, Falco worked around a leadoff single to punctuate his team’s best stretch of pitching all season.

The Terps closed their tournament run with a 1.22 team ERA.

[Nick Lorusso’s walk-off blast sent Maryland past Nebraska and into Big Ten semifinals]

Sunday also featured an uncharacteristically quiet Maryland offense that’s scored just enough to win all week.

The Terps hit just two home runs in the first three games of the tournament after using the long ball to power their offensive surge in the regular season. They matched that total in Sunday’s fifth inning as Kevin Keister and Nick Lorusso both cleared the left field wall to break a scoreless tie.

A bulk of the production came from the bottom of the order. No. 8 hitter Jacob Orr’s RBI single in the sixth finished a 5-for-13 stretch in the tournament while Keister, the No. 9 hitter, notched his fourth RBI in as many games with the go-ahead blast.

The finality of the tournament and the possibility of jubilation inched closer as each inning ended without Iowa pushing a run across. After Eddie Hacopian secured the final out of the ninth, an inning-ending double play, Luke Shliger raced to the mound to hug Falco. Within seconds, every Terp joined them.

The celebration symbolizes the latest milestone of a meteoric rise for a program that was a Big Ten afterthought just a few years ago.

Vaughn’s team failed to make the NCAA tournament in his first two seasons before finally breaking through in 2021.

Then, they claimed consecutive regular season titles.

Now, Maryland has its first conference tournament championship.