Hunter Parsons carried Maryland baseball in potentially his final college start

Maryland baseball opened its postseason with a 6-2 win over Illinois Wednesday in the Big Ten tournament. The Terps found their offense late, and were able to manage that long thanks to senior right-hander Hunter Parsons holding it down on the mound.

Parsons pitched for 7.1 innings against the Illini, fully in control of what was probably his last collegiate start. He gave up just one run and four hits on 123 pitches. The Fruitland, Maryland, native gave the Terps that final gift as his mom cheered him on.

Head coach Rob Vaughn praised his entire team in his postgame press conference, but was especially emotional talking about the senior righty.

Unless Maryland wins out this week, Parsons has likely pitched his last inning for the Terps—pitching again this weekend on short rest would be a surprise. The win completes his season with a 10-3 record. He started 15 games, and finishes with a 3.43 ERA, allowing just a .232 opposing batting average seeing a team-high 379 batters. He also had a career-high 78 strikeouts in 104.1 innings pitched.

Parsons has started at least four games in each of his four years, but emerged as the best arm in Maryland’s stable last season. He threw 89 innings as a junior in 13 starts, going 5-2 with a 3.44 ERA, 62 strikeouts and a .225 opposing ERA. That acension to ace came after Parsons had a 12.05 ERA in 22 innings pitched and four starts over 12 appearances as a sophomore, an anomaly in his career with the Terps. The right-hander earned a Big Ten Freshman of the Week award in 2016 and made rice starts in 15 appearances.

Maryland will face No. 7-seed Ohio State in the second round, as the Buckeyes held off No. 2-seed Michigan 2-1 on Wednesday. The Terps will take on Ohio State at 6 p.m. ET.

In other news

Maryland women's lacrosse takes on Northwestern in the Final Four, the third meeting between the teams this season. A win would get Maryland back in the championship game, and the Terps will lean on experience to get back to the title game on Friday.

Head coach Cathy Reese was named to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame Wednesday, adding another accomplishment to her legendary coaching career.

Women's lacrosse’s seniors are missing graduation for the Final Four, so they had their own ceremony Wednesday night.

The team's valedictorian: Katherine Golladay.

With men’s lacrosse’s season cut short while women’s lacrosse made another deep run, the podcast returned to figure out how they went in opposite directions.

Kevin Huerter became the first Terp since Steve Francis to make a NBA All-Rookie team on Monday, being named to the NBA All-Rookie second team.