Maryland opens 2021 campaign in Greenville, SC

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The Maryland baseball team is scheduled to open its 2021 season in Greenville, South Carolina, this weekend. The Terps are scheduled to play a series of four games against Michigan State at Fluor Field, home of Greenvile Drive, an affiliate of Boston Red Sox Class A. Maryland opens the season in fifth place in the preseason survey of the top ten coaches.

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STORIES OF THIS WEEK

pre-season honors abound

• Junior First Base Maxwell Costes won most of the 2021 preseason honors in Maryland. Most notably (and recently), Costes was nominated for the prestigious USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award preseason list. Costes becomes only the fifth Terp in the program’s history to compete for the prize, which is awarded annually to the best amateur baseball player in the country.
• Costes also garnered All-American praise from D1Baseball.com’s Pre-season, Perfect Game, Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association (NCBWA), in addition to being named D1Baseball as the Pre-Season’s Ten Best Player of the Year.
• Other Terps that gain considerable pre-season recognition are Sean Burke (PerfectGame Preseason Big Ten Pitcher of the year, Perfect Game Pre-season All-Big Ten), Randy Bednar (All-Big Ten perfect preseason game), and Jason Savacool (Baseball America Big Ten pre-season newcomer of the year).

terps in mlb draft ratings

• Maryland has developed a number of elite recruiting candidates over the years, and this year’s squad may be as loaded as ever with the potential of the major league.
• According to D1Baseball, Maryland has two of the top Big Ten recruiting candidates in the 2021 recruiting class (Sean Burke, # 6; Maxwell Costes, # 10), four potential customers in the 2022 project class (Bobby Zmarzlak, # 1; Connor Staine, # two; Nick Dean, # 6; Dave Falco, # 8), and two more in the 2023 design class (Jason Savacool, # two; Matt Shaw, No. 9).
• Baseball America also ranks Maryland’s current prospects – with Sean Burke ranked third overall among the ten major prospects in the 2021 class and Maxwell Costes ranked 14th.
• Baseball America’s 2022 prospect ratings showcase Bobby Zmarzlak (# 1 overall in Big Ten) and Connor Staine (# 7), while the top 10 prospects for 2023 are presented by another Terp in Jason Savacool (# 1).

maryland will play 44 games of the big ten

• Maryland’s modified 2021 schedule will allow Terps to play 44 games at conferences this spring alone. Maryland will open the season with a series of four games against Michigan State in Greenville, South Carolina, at Fluor Field, home of Greenville Drive, a Boston Red Sox Class A affiliate, over the weekend of March 5-7.
• Maryland will host the top ten enemy enemies Rutgers, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, Minnesota, Purdue and Indiana.
• Meanwhile, Maryland will travel to other Big Ten institutions in Penn State, Ohio State, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan.

history of the series against the Spartans

• Maryland has 8-3 of all time against the state of Michigan. Without meeting until they became opponents of the conference, Maryland’s first clash against the Spartans took place at the Big Ten Tournament 2015, where the Terps won 2-1.
• Terps faced Michigan State in East Lansing, when Maryland took 2 of 3 games in the series.
• Maryland was scheduled for a set of three games against the Spartans in 2020, before the season was canceled.

2020 under review

• Maryland’s shortened campaign for 2020 was a glimpse of what’s to come for the Terps, who haven’t participated in an NCAA tournament since 2017.
• With only 15 games out of the conference this season, Maryland ended the year with a 10-5 record, winning the series against Bryant and Rhode Island, but losing three games in Coastal Carolina.
• Maxwell Costes led the Terps in almost all offensive categories, cutting .432 / .620 / .750 and hitting 4 home runs with 15 directed races. The Baltimore hitter also reached the league’s highest mark 16 times.
• Randy Bednar and Chris Alleyne they were the pillars at the top of the order and in the outer camp of Maryland. Bednar and Alleyne were successful machines for the Terps, hitting .387 and .333, respectively.
• Maryland’s pitching team was anchored by a redshirt freshman Sean Burke, who started in four games and pitched 22 and a third innings. Burke made it 2-0 with an ERA of 1.99. He was supported by Sean Fisher and Nick Dean in the initial rotation, as well as impressive arms outside the bullpen in Elliot Zoellner, Sam Bello, and Connor Staine.