(RECAP COURTESY OF MARYLAND ATHLETICS)

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — BIG TEN CHAMPS! 

No. 14 Maryland won its first Big Ten Championship in baseball on Friday evening as the Terps beat Purdue, 18-7, at Alexander Field. The Terps won the outright Big Ten title and will be the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. The Terps stand at 18-5 in the conference and add to its best record in program history, moving to 44-10.

The Terps last won a conference championship in 1971 when the Terps won the ACC. Overall, this is the fifth conference title for the Terps, as they also won the ACC in 1965 and 1970 and the Southern Conference in 1936. Maryland’s last outright conference title in baseball was in 1965.

Matt Shaw smashed his 20th of the season to put the Terps up for good in the sixth inning, making it 7-5 at the time. Shaw went 4-for-5 with two homers, four runs scored and five RBIs and now has 63 RBIs this season to go along with his 21 home runs, second in the Big Ten . 

Chris Alleyne went 2-for-4 with two homers and five RBIs as he leads the Big Ten in homers with 22 and RBIs with 73.

Freshman Ian Petrutz went 3-for-5 with a home run — for the fourth game in a row — and three RBIs. Troy Schreffler Jr., and Kevin Keister also drove in runs. Luke Shliger also hit a home run to give the Terps six homers in the game — the third time this season they blasted six long balls. 

On the mound, Nick Dean earned the win to move to 6-2 throwing the first five innings. Nigel Belgrave pitched two innings in relief. David Falco Jr., finished off the eighth and ninth, including recording the final out to clinch the championship with a strikeout.

Breaking Down The Action 
• The Terps jumped out to 1-0 lead as Alleyne crushed his fourth homer in as many games to right field. 
• The Boilermakers grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second inning as Cam Thompson and Evan Albrecht drove in runs. 
• Alleyne walked with the bases loaded to bring in Maxwell Costes in the top of the fourth to tie the game at 2-2. 
• The Terps took a 3-2 lead on Schreffler Jr.’s bloop single which scored Matt Shaw who singled to right and raced all the way to third on a fielding error. Another Maryland run came home on an Ian Petrutz single to center, which was misplayed by the Purdue centerfielder, which allowed Schreffler to come around to score, making it 4-2. After a pitching change, Keister’s drive to right field brought home Petrutz for a three-run edge, 5-2. 
• Purdue evened the game at 5-5 on a two-run homer by Paul Toetz in the bottom of the fifth inning. 
• Shaw’s two-run homer to center regained the lead for Maryland at 7-5 as he brought in Nick Lorusso, who singled in front of him. 
• Alleyne blasted his second homer of the game, a three-run shot, to make it 10-5 in the seventh. Shaw’s double to center scored Lorusso, for an 11-5 lead. A wild pitch allowed Shaw to score for a 12-5 advantage. 
• Shliger his a solo home run, Shaw added a two-run blast, and Petrutz knocked a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth to drive in six extra insurance runs for the Terps.