Once a contact hitter, Matt Shaw is now Maryland baseball’s all-time home run leader: ‘He cares about everything’

There is a new home run king in College Park.

With a two-run blast in the third inning of Maryland baseball’s game against Georgetown on Wednesday night, Matt Shaw set the record for most home runs in program history.

“It’s good,” the junior shortstop said a few days before his achievement. “Hopefully, I can hit more than one past it and kind of make it a little bit harder to break, but it’s definitely cool.”

The home run was Shaw’s 44th of his career. He passed former first baseman Paul Schager, who hit 43 from 1984 to 1987 and applauded Shaw’s leapfrog over him.

“I’m happy for him,” said Schager, the current executive associate athletic director at Michigan State. “Maryland baseball has improved. They’re competitive now in the Big Ten, and it’s exciting to see that, and that’s a function of when you have a program that’s having success, you’re going to get better players, and Matt is definitely a talented player. I hope he does well and becomes someone I can follow as his career progresses.”

By his own admission, Shaw was more of a contact hitter through Little League and Worcester Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts. Slightly undersized at 5 feet 10 and 180 pounds, he found a role model in former second baseman Dustin Pedroia, a 5-9, 170-pound member of the Boston Red Sox who hit 140 home runs in 14 Major League Baseball seasons and won the American League’s Silver Slugger and Most Valuable Player awards in 2008.

“Just a smaller guy, but he got it done on both sides of the baseball and was able to hit home runs, too,” Shaw said. “I think there’s a lot of smaller guys that kind of get overlooked at times, but still can hit pretty well, have the ability to do it, and can hit for power.”

After hitting seven home runs as a freshman in 2021, Shaw exploded for 22 as a sophomore last spring. That total ranked as the third-most in a season in Terps history.

Shaw benefited from a workout regimen that helped him add 15 to 20 pounds to his frame, and coach Rob Vaughn credited Shaw’s development to his body’s natural evolution, noting that his forearms are “huge.” He also called Shaw more mature than any player has coached.

“He cares about everything – how he sleeps, what he eats,” he said. “Every ounce of that is geared towards him being the most elite version he can be, and that’s tough. Most people aren’t willing to sacrifice the types of things and make the decisions he’s made, but it matters to him that much, and that’s why you’re seeing all this stuff out of him.”

Vaughn described Shaw as a patient right-handed batter who waits on pitches, and Shaw acknowledged that he tends to use a certain analytical approach during his at-bats.

“When I’m here, a lot of guys like to throw away,” he said. “So I’m looking for a fastball outside because that’s where I get pitched, and that’s why a lot of my home runs are to the opposite field. That’s just one of those things where I’m learning how they’re attacking me and using that to my benefit.”

As Shaw crept closer to Schager’s record, the latter got periodic updates from Brent Flynn, Maryland’s associate director of university recreation and wellness and former teammate. When former Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis introduced him at a recent meeting in Detroit to support the United States Football League franchise as the program’s all-time home run leader, Schager quipped, “Not for long.”

Schager, an Emporium, Pennsylvania, native and Pittsburgh Pirates fan, said he grew up admiring Willie Stargell, who hit the most home runs (296) of any player during the 1970s. He said he was surprised his record has lasted as long as it did.

“The people that I idolized in professional baseball were home run hitters, and I thought that was kind of the point,” he said. “Just hit it as far as you can — that was my mindset. I wasn’t trying to hit a home run every time, but you kind of start there and work backwards.”

Shaw said he appreciated Schager’s blessing for breaking his record.

“I would feel the same way if it worked out in the future,” he said. “Obviously, you want to see good things come for your school and for the university. It’s all good stuff.”

Shaw seems destined for the majors later this summer. He is ranked as the No. 20 prospect in the 2023 MLB draft by MLB.com, and he said reaching that stage is a childhood ambition.

“That would be awesome,” he said. “It’s all part of the process, but something that is obviously an important part.”

With a 26-15 record and an 8-4 mark in the Big Ten entering Wednesday, the Terps are projected to be included in the NCAA Tournament Regionals, although serving as host as they did last spring is unlikely. Vaughn didn’t shy away from the notion that the team needs Shaw — who has contributed to the offense leading the Big Ten in total home runs with 83 and ranking sixth nationally — to continue his prowess at the plate.

“If he shatters the record, that means we’re playing baseball for a while, and that’s what we need,” he said. “We say it around here all the time: ‘At times, you need your best players to be your best players,’ and him and [junior catcher Luke] Shliger and [senior infielder Nick] LoRusso are going to have to be really good down the stretch for us.”

As for the record-breaking home run, Shaw said he hopes to get the baseball and give it to his father James. The title of “home run king” may take some time getting accustomed to.

“It doesn’t sound super fitting,” Shaw said. “I’ll think of another term maybe for it.”

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