Maryland baseball shuts out Indiana, 2-0, to start Big Ten play

Behind stellar defense and an outstanding pitching performance from Hunter Parsons, Maryland baseball began its Big Ten schedule on a positive note, shutting out Indiana 2-0 on Friday night.

Hunter Parsons was masterful for the Terps (13-11, 1-0 Big Ten). The right-hander carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning. He lasted another three, throwing eight scoreless innings of two-hit baseball with five strikeouts. After coming up just short last weekend against Creighton, Parsons led Maryland to snap its six-game home losing streak.

Pauly Milto pitched 6.1 innings for Indiana (15-10, 3-1 Big Ten), striking out eight, walking three and allowing two earned runs on six hits. It was actually a slightly below-average start for him, as he entered Friday with a 2.25 ERA for the season. Chris Alleyne led Maryland’s offense, going 2-for-4 and scoring both of the Terps’ runs.

Defense and pitching carried the load for both teams all night. Indiana had multiple potential hits denied by the Terrapin defense in the top of the third. Grant Richardson hit what looked like a sure solo home run to right field before Randy Bednar took that away, robbing him at the wall to keep the game scoreless. On the next pitch, Scotty Bradley hit a possible line drive to split the left-center field gap before shortstop AJ Lee leaped and took it away, much to the approval of Parsons.

It wasn’t until the fourth that a hit or run was put on the board for either team, both coming at the benefit of Maryland. Chris Alleyne led off the inning with a triple off the right-center field wall. Two batters later, Taylor Wright safety-squeezed him home to put Maryland up 1-0.

Maryland added onto its lead in the sixth thanks to more small ball. Alleyne drag bunt singled to lead off the inning, advancing to third on a single through the right side from Taylor Wright. Two batters later, a sacrifice fly from Caleb Walls would score Alleyne, his second run of the day, doubling Maryland’s lead at 2-0.

The Terps ran into some trouble in the seventh as Indiana had a runner on third with two outs, but Parsons was more than up to the task, forcing a groundout to second. Milto departed for Indiana with one out in the seventh after allowing a hit and a walk, but Maryland couldn’t add on to the lead.

Parsons grinded through the eighth, passing 100 pitches and finishing the day with 114, but he continued to stifle the Indiana bats. Despite a two-out walk, the Hoosiers weren’t able to move the runner past first base.

John Murphy came in to close the game, and despite allowing a leadoff walk, the senior struck out the last two batters of the game to secure the win for Maryland.

The Terps and Hoosiers will continue their weekend series on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.