On the brightest stage of his brief career, Maryland freshman pitcher Brian Shaffer found himself in trouble in the first inning of Thursday night’s game against Illinois, the nation’s fourth-ranked team by Baseball America. He gave up a run off three singles, and Maryland fell into an early hole against a team that hadn’t lost in nearly two months.
But Shaffer was never rattled. He displayed command all evening – 77 of his 107 pitches went for strikes – and he finished with a career-high seven strikeouts over seven innings to lift Maryland to a 2-1 win over Illinois in the second round of the Big Ten tournament in Minneapolis.