COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Last year was a season of firsts for the Maryland Terrapin baseball program.
The program advanced to the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time since 1971. It also discovered an ace unlike any the program has seen in quite a while, if ever. Now, riding the right arm of sophomore sensation Mike Shawaryn, the team is looking for another first — a trip to Omaha for the College World Series.
In just two seasons, Shawaryn has already broken the school’s career wins record, picking up his 23rd with a seven-inning, nine-strikeout performance in a 2-1 victory over Michigan State in the opening game of the Big Ten Tournament.
Closer Kevin Mooney slammed the door on that game, retiring six of the seven batters he faced for a two-inning save, the first of three in the tournament. The all-time school saves leader understands the difference Shawaryn makes psychologically when he takes the mound to start a series for the Terps.
“We know we’re going to get seven, eight strong innings out of him,” Mooney says. “That really helps the mentality for the pitching staff and the team as a whole heading into any weekend.”
A top 200-ranked pitcher out of high school, Shawaryn has evolved into a legitimate Golden Spikes Award contender this season. After a strong freshman season, he’s improved nearly across the board, going 12-2 with a microscopic 1.65 ERA, striking out 124 while walking just 23 in 103.1 innings pitched.
Already having thrown 12 more innings than last year, Shawaryn credits his offseason training regimen in helping him push through to the finish line.
“Strength-wise I feel great, my body feels really good,” he says. “Towards the end of the season, you just move things away so your body feels good for the next start. It’s not about getting stronger anymore.”
He’s molded himself into a top prospect rare in school history. Maryland hasn’t had a player selected in the first round of Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft since John McCurdy back in the Oakland Athletics’ famous 2002 Moneyball draft. The last Terrapins pitcher to go in the opening round was Eric Milton, the 20th overall selection by the Yankees back in 1996.
But that’s a discussion for another year. Shawaryn won’t be draft eligible until next season, meaning the full focus is on the task at hand, which is an arduous one. The Terps have to travel across the country to Los Angeles, where they find themselves in top overall seed UCLA’s four-team bracket. If they survive the double-elimination format, they advance to a three-game set against the winner from UC Santa Barbara’s region, also in Southern California. Win that, go to Omaha.
This is a familiar setting for Maryland. They came into the tournament as an underdog and unknown last year, only to upend powerhouse South Carolina in its own regional on the way to a Super Regional showdown with Virginia. There, the Terrapins stole the first game before dropping the final two, watching U.Va. race all the way to the championship series in Omaha.
For Shawaryn, the ghosts of his past and alternate futures are everywhere. Virginia dropped the title game to Vanderbilt, the other team that worked the hardest to recruit him, the team that came up short. To get there, Virginia beat Ole Miss, the team Shawaryn and the Terps will face first in Los Angeles on Friday night.
But Maryland was always where Shawaryn wanted to be. Having suffered an arm injury during his junior year of high school, he was more circumspect than your average high school recruit about finding the school that fit him best, both on and off the field. That reasoned approach — that he loved the campus, that he felt he fit in, that it was close enough for his parents to drive from New Jersey to see him play — makes him who he is.
“Baseball may or may not be around …” he stops himself. “It won’t be around for my whole life, playing anyways. I wanted to go to a school where, if I did get injured and couldn’t play anymore, I’d enjoy the school. I know (Vanderbilt) won a national championship, but I have no regret about choosing Maryland.”
Besides, being at Maryland meant a chance to grow with a program on the rise. Coach John Szefc, who won the recruiting battle to bring Shawaryn to College Park, believes that was a big part of it as well.
“I think the idea of him building something and doing it at a high level was attractive to him,” says Szefc.
The team has taken on Shawaryn’s levelheaded, deliberate, considered approach. It helped them last year through their unexpected run, and again this year as they sealed their at-large bid by snapping Illinois’ 27-game winning streak in the Big Ten Tournament.
“When you’re dealing with college athletes, you get a lot of ups and downs at times,” says Szefc. “There’s really not a lot of ups and downs with him … He’s the exact symbol of (consistency). We’re trying to have a collection of low maintenance guys who are the same every day.”
As for Shawaryn, he knows what he and the Terps have accomplished so far, and while he’s not resting on his laurels, he believes they can reach new heights this season.
“We kind of already had a similar situation with Illinois in the Big Ten Championship,” he says of knocking off a giant. “We’re not cocky about it. We’re confident in ourselves that we can get the job done. Hopefully, at the end of the day, we end up in Omaha.”
