Facing an Old Friend

By Rob Galligan and Anthony Papio

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

Maryland juniors Rob Galligan (left) and Anthony Papio will contribute a journal to CollegeBaseballInsider.com for the 2015 season. Galligan has made 14 appearances out of the bullpen over his first two seasons and lists Muhammad Ali as his sports hero. Papio started 53 games in 2014, hitting .271 with nine doubles, two homers and 29 RBI and lists Pat Tillman as his sports hero.

This past week was one of the toughest weeks for the Terps so far.

After a tough road loss to James Madison University on Tuesday, the Terps went on the road to Ann Arbor to face Michigan. Although this series may have seemed like a typical conference weekend, this series was personal for a lot of guys.

After the 2012 season, the head coach for Maryland, Erik Bakich, along with pitching coach Sean Kenny and former player Aaron Etchinson, left UMD to take over at Michigan. The only three players remaining from that 2012 roster are Anthony Papio, Rob Galligan and Bobby Ruse. Although the rest of the team did not play for Bakich, all of the junior class and about half of the sophomore class was either committed to or recruited to UMD by Bakich. 

Due to cold weather, snow and wind, the game on Friday was canceled and moved to a doubleheader on Saturday and one game on Sunday. With that being said, Saturday and Sunday were not much better. Just to give you a glimpse of how cold it was, I was wearing leggings, base layer, cold gear thermal, 2 fleeces, 3 sweatshirts, 2 jackets, 2 winter hats and gloves. Although, I’m a little bit of baby when it comes to cold weather, I always use the excuse “I’m a reliever, I’m trying to stay warm.” Unfortunately, I don’t think people are believing that one anymore. 

With that being said, it was a tough week for the Terps. We went 1-3 on the week (loss to JMU on Wednesday and 1-2 on weekend against Michigan). There were a couple notable performances this weekend: 

• Mike Shawaryn remains perfect after earning his sixth win in Game 1 of the doubleheader on Saturday. Shawaryn went 7.1 innings with seven SO and allowed five hits, one ER and one walk.

• Kevin Mooney earned his third save of the year (25^th of career). 

• After facing two hitters on Saturday, Taylor Stiles came out of the bullpen on Sunday throwing seven innings of relief, allowing only two hits and one walk.  

Despite the frustrating weekend, we are looking at it as a little speed bump. We have a special group of guys and we know that these next couple weeks will be great opportunities to bounce back. We get an opportunity to play JMU again on Wednesday at home and then we host a hot Nebraska team this weekend. We are looking forward to this home stretch and can’t wait to play at home again in some warmer weather. 

Go Terps!

#BP15

Rob Galligan & Anthony Papio