Erie, PA—The Mercyhurst Baseball team will be back on the field this weekend after splitting a four-game series with Gannon. The Lakers will host the UPJ Cats on Friday prior to heading to Johnstown on Saturday.
Laker Overview
The Lakers are entering the weekend with a 11-5 record overall and a 2-2 record in PSAC play. Mercyhurst was able to bounce back on Saturday beating Gannon twice by scores of 4-2 and 7-2. Jack Elliott led the way offensively on Saturday as he hit one homerun in the first game and followed that up with two homeruns in the second game of the day. This season the Lakers have five hitters that are hitting over .300 this season. Leading the way in batting average is Philip Ferranti who has a .385 batting average for the Lakers. Right behind Ferranti is Troy Banks and Matthew Gibson who are both hitting .333 on the season. Luke Jackson leads freshman hitters with a .310 average this season while also adding two homers and 11 RBI in his rookie campaign.
On the bump, the Laker pitching staff is third the PSAC with a 4.50 ERA while they have allowed just 58 earned runs in 116 innings pitched. Michael Krauza has been near perfect on the mound this season as he has a 1.89 ERA out of the bullpen this season, he also leads the team in strikeouts with 23. Michael McDonough is right behind Krauza in strikeouts as he has 20 K's in his four starts of the season. Jack Goonan has been dominate as the closer for the Lakers as he has three saves in three attempts. He has held batters to a .105 average while striking out seven batters in five innings. Vincenzo Lucente has a 2-1 record while having a 4.50 ERA and has struck out 14 batter while holding batters to a .267 average in 12 innings.
Scouting UPJ
The Mountain Cats are coming into the weekend series with Mercyhurst with a 7-5 record, they are coming off a weekend in which they beat Clarion in the first three games of the weekend before falling in the second game on Saturday by a score of 9-8 in extra innings. UPJ is led offensively by Dylan Broderick who has a batting average of .417 this season while also having three triples and six RBI. Behind him is Tyler Smith who has a .385 average and 18 RBI. Overall, the Mountain Lions have a team batting average of .317.
UPJ's pitching staff has a team ERA of 3.89 while having 98 combined strikeouts as a staff. Dylan Hield is their innings leader to this point; he has pitched 20.1 innings in his three starts this season. Hield's ERA this season is 1.03 with a WHIP of .54 and 36 strikeouts.
Up Next
After the Lakers and Mountain Cats conclude their four game series, the Lakers will continue their PSAC play as they will host California (PA) on Friday, April 9th before heading to California (PA) on April 10th.
