The Mercyhurst baseball team meets Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) West Division foe Slippery Rock in a pair of doubleheaders to be played over the weekend on April 8-9. The games were originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but have been moved due to projected snow on Friday.
 
The Lakers will host Slippery Rock on Saturday in a doubleheader at 1 p.m. and then travel to Slippery Rock for Sunday's doubleheader also beginning at 1 p.m.
 
Scouting The Rock
Slippery Rock enters the weekend at 15-6 overall and tied with Mercyhurst at 7-1 in PSAC West Division action. Slippery Rock was a winner of 11-straight games before losing its last game to Pitt-Johnstown. The Rocks ranked fourth in multiple Atlantic Region polls this week.
 
The Rock features this past week's NCBWA Atlantic Region Hitter of the Week in Tyler Walters. He went 8-for-9 in two games, recorded four doubles, two home runs, 11 runs batted in, and seven runs scored, and had a .900 on-base percentage.
 
Laker Outlook
Mercyhurst (18-2) took three of four games against Seton Hill last weekend and pummeled Penn State Greater Allegheny in a non-conference doubleheader on Tuesday. The Lakers scored 20+ runs in a game for the second time this season in game one against PSU-GA and are now averaging 9.95 runs per game.
 
In his last four games, Drew Delsignore has been an RBI-machine, driving in 12 runs to give him a team-high season total of 25 RBI through 20 games.
 
Laker pitching has been equally as impressive of late, with starting pitchers Chris Vallimont and Russell Lamovec pitching complete game shutouts in their most recent outings.  

National and Regional Rankings Update
Listed below are the updated rankings for Mercyhurst baseball in multiple Division II national and regional polls. The Lakers are now ranked in the top-ten in all listed national polls and take the top spot in the D2 Baseball News poll for the second-straight week.
  

	Collegiate Baseball	NCBWA	D2Baseball	Perfect Game	NCBWA (Atl. Region)	D2Baseball  (Atl. Region)	Lakers Record
Preseason	#9	#12	#7	#16	#2	#2	0-0
Feb. 13-19			#6			#2	2-1
Feb. 20-26		#14		#16	#2		5-1
Feb. 27-March 5	#12	#13	#6	#13	#2	#2	7-1
March 6-12	#12	#8	#5	#13	#1	#2	8-1
March 13-19	#11	#6	#3	#13	#1	#2	8-1
March 20-26	#15	#6	#3	#13	#1	#2	12-1
March 27-April 2	#13	#6	#1	#12	#1	#1	18-2
April 3-9	#9	#4	#1	#7	#1	#1

RV – Received Votes; NR – Not Ranked; Blank – No Release/Update
 
Coming Up Next
Mercyhurst takes on Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Ohio on April 15 in a game rescheduled from March 15. The Lakers will then return to PSAC play with a pair of doubleheaders against Clarion on April 14-15.