Maryland to open College Park Regional against LIU on Friday night

Jun. 3—COLLEGE PARK — It took a program-record 45 wins for Maryland to host its first NCAA baseball tournament regional, now comes the hard part — winning it.

The Terps (45-12), the College Park Regional's top seed and the 15th national seed, play host to No. 2 Wake Forest (40-17-1), No. 3 UConn (46-13) and No. 4 Long Island (37-19).

It's a double-elimination format, with UConn playing Wake Forest at 1 p.m. on Friday and Maryland facing LIU at 7 p.m. The losers will play each other in an elimination game Saturday at 1 p.m., and the Day 1 winners square off at 7 p.m.

Sunday begins with an elimination game at 1 p.m., with the winner advancing to the championship game at 7 p.m. If necessary, the championship replay is on Monday at 7 p.m.

The winner of the College Park Regional plays the victor of the Stanford Regional in a best-of-three super regional series. Stanford is the No. 2 national seed, and its region also contains Texas State, UCSB and Binghamton.

Maryland is making its eighth NCAA tournament appearance in school history. The Terps have advanced to the super regionals twice in 2014 and 2015, falling both times to Virginia.

Last year, Maryland was the runner-up of the Greenville Regional, falling to Charlotte in its opener before beating Norfolk State and Charlotte in elimination games to advance to the title game. There, the Terps fell to No. 12 national seed East Carolina, 9-6.

While Maryland has shown the ability to spring upsets as the road warrior in past regionals, beating South Carolina and UCLA in 2014 and 2015, respectively, it's the Terps' first time coming in as favorites.

In Maryland's first game, the Terps have to contest with arguably the regional's best pitcher.

Maryland will likely see LIU ace Joshua Loeschorn, a senior right-hander who was voted Northeast Conference Pitcher of the Year and a Collegiate Baseball second-team All-American.

Loeschorn, a senior, is 11-2 with a 3.02 earned-run average with 102 strikeouts in 95 1/3 innings pitched. Nick Torres (3.14 ERA, 51.2 IP, 5 SV), Joshua Gainer (3.18 ERA, 39.2 IP, 7 SV) and Nick DeSalvo (3.32 ERA, 57 IP, 1 SV) are all dependable options out of the bullpen.

LIU's offense is led by Luke Turner with a team-high .343 average. Turner missed 24 games with an arm injury, returning on May 13.

EJ Exposito is its top power threat with 13 home runs and 41 RBIs with a .269 average. Michael Edelman (.326) and Giovanni Ciaccio (.310) are also tough outs at the top of the line-up.

LIU bats .258 as a team, scores 6.29 runs a game and has 52 home runs. Its pitching staff has a 4.21 earned-run average. LIU has an RPI of 135 against the 265th toughest schedule in the country (138 non-conference).

Maryland possesses a team .307 average, tallies 9.11 runs a night and has clubbed 123 big flies — good for third in the nation behind Tennessee and Old Dominion. The Terps have a team 4.89 ERA.

The Terps finished the regular season with an RPI of No. 9 in the nation, facing the nation's 107th-toughest slate overall and 140th-toughest non-conference schedule.

Maryland's Big Ten Championship this year was its first conference title since 1971 as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Maryland skipper Rob Vaughn, the Big Ten Coach of the Year, announced Thursday that left-hander Ryan Ramsey will get the Game 1 nod. Ramsey, an All-Conference first-team selection, is 10-1 with a 3.49 ERA on 58 hits in 85 innings pitched, striking out 76 and walking 38.

Ramsey had one of the highlights of Maryland's season so far when he threw the 20th perfect game in college baseball history on April 29 against Northwestern.

However, the junior has struggled over his last two starts, allowing six runs in five innings to beat Michigan during the regular season, and surrendering 10 runs (six earned) in 3 1/3 frames against the Wolverines in the Big Ten tournament.

Before those two contests, Ramsey had a 2.47 ERA in his first 12 starts.

Jason Savacool, another first-team All-Big Ten member of the staff, will likely start Game 2. The sophomore is 8-2 with a 2.89 ERA and led the Big Ten in innings pitched (99.2) and strikeouts (117).

Nick Dean (6-2, 4.44 ERA) is likely to start the Terps' third game on the mound.

The bullpen has been Maryland's one Achilles' heel throughout the season, but David Falco Jr. has become its most dependable reliever of late. Falco has a 3.08 ERA in 26 1/3 innings pitched, allowing just one over his final 10 2/3 frames to close the season.

Offensively, Maryland boasts a line-up with six hitters who bat at least .300 and three more that hit .289 or better.

The Terps' order is paced by Big Ten Player of the Year Bubba Alleyne, who was named a first-team All-American on Thursday. With 22 home runs and 23 stolen bases, Alleyne is the first 20-20 club member in school history and the first in Division I since 2018.

Troy Schreffler Jr. leads Maryland with a .348 average, followed by Alleyne (.346), Luke Shliger (.345), Nick Lorusso (.319), Ian Petrutz (.310), Kevin Keister (.306), Matt Shaw (.294), Bobby Zmarzlak (.290) and Maxwell Costes (.288).

Shaw was second in the Big Ten, behind Alleyne, with 21 home runs.

Alleyne, Lorusso, Keister, Savacool, Ramsey and Shaw were named first-team All-Conference. Shliger was a second-teamer, and Costes, Dean and Schreffler made the third team.

Wake Forest is led by All-ACC pitcher Rhett Lowder, who is 11-3 with a 2.61 ERA. First baseman Nick Kurtz and catcher Brendan Tinsman made the third team. The Demon Deacons are No. 6 in RPI against the 25th-toughest schedule.

UConn slotted five players on the All-Big East first squad: pitchers Austin Peterson and Pat Gallagher, catcher Matt Donlan, designated hitter Korey Morton and outfielder Erik Stock. The Huskies ended the season 43rd in RPI with a schedule ranked 181st toughest.

Maryland is 57-101-1 all-time against Wake Forest spanning back to the Terps' time in the ACC. In the teams' last meeting, Maryland won, 11-3, on April 6, 2014, behind four hits and four RBIs by Charlie White.

The Terps have never played UConn or Long Island.

All games can be streamed on the Watch ESPN app. Select games will also be aired on ESPNU.

Alex Rychwalski is a sports reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.