Erie, PA—After a convincing sweep of Clarion last weekend, the Mercyhurst baseball team earned the second seed in the PSAC West playoffs. Mercyhurst will host Cal (PA) on Wednesday in a single nine inning game starting at noon.
Laker Overview
The Lakers clinched the second seed with a record of 26-13 overall and a conference record of 17-10. Mercyhurst played this past weekend against Clarion, on Friday the Lakers shutout the Golden Eagles in both games by a score of 8-0 and 2-0. In game one, Michael McDonough went six innings for the Lakers while striking out seven. He allowed just four hits while not allowing a run or a walk. Jack Elliott led the way at the plate he went two for three with a home run, a double and two RBIs in the win. Mercyhurst had 12 hits in the game, every player who started recorded a hit in the game with three of them recording multiple hits. Tyler Zaluski kept his hot streak going as he went two for four at the plate as he doubled and homer while driving in two RBI in the win.
In game two, Vincenzo Lucente was great on the mound as he pitched a complete game shutout and struckout 10 in his second career complete game shutout of his career. He allowed just three hits while he didn't walk anybody. Mercyhurst was able to push across two runs for the win. The Lakers opened the scoring in the first inning after Elliott singled to drive in Casimer Sobaszek in for the first run. In the third inning Josh Surowiec drove in Sobaszek with a SAC Fly for the second run of the game.
On Saturday, the Mercyhurst bats got hot once again as they were able to score 15 runs in the first game and another 17 runs in the second game. In game one, Mercyhurst tallied 16 hits with nine different Lakers recording hits. Troy Banks had three hits in the game while Sobaszek, Zaluski, and Logan Martella-Tasick each recording three RBIs in the win. Michael Krauza picked up his PSAC leading ninth win of the season as he went 4.2 innings while he struckout eight while allowing just one earned run. In the second game of the day Luke Baranchak lead the way for the Lakers at the plate as he went three for four with two doubles and a team high six RBI. Seven Lakers tallied hits for the Blue and Green, three different Lakers tallied three hits. As a team Mercyhurst put up 17 hits while six Lakers drove in runs.
Where We Rank
As a team, the Lakers are hitting .293 this season, that ranks them seventh in the PSAC. The long ball has helped the Lakers as they have hit 47 homers this season which puts them at fourth in the conference while they are fifth in the conference in RBI. In the field, Mercyhurst has a .968 fielding percentage which has them tied for third with West Chester and Cal. The Laker pitching staff has been lights out this season as they have the second-best team ERA in the PSAC with a 4.52. We are holding opponents to a .238 batting average which is second behind Seton Hill.
Series with Cal
The Lakers and Vulcans have matched up four times this season with the two teams splitting the series. Each team won a game on each day of the doubleheader, in the first game of the series Cal came out on top by a score of 4-3. Mercyhurst gave up a three-run homer in the top of the seventh inning to give Cal the lead.
In game two Mercyhurst came out on top by a score of 7-4. Elliott led the way for the Lakers as he went three for four at the dish and had two homers and four RBI. Krauza picked up the win for the Lakers as he went 4.1 innings while striking out five and giving up one run.
Game three of the series went the way of the Vulcans as they won 9-6. Surowiec went three for four at the plate as he also drove in two for the Lakers. Six different Lakers recorded hits while six different Lakers toed the rubber for Mercyhurst.
The final game of the series Mercyhurst came out on top by a score of 4-2. Ferranti and Surowiec each homered in the win. Brett Whiteman got the start and went four innings and allowed just two runs on four hits. Chase Stewart earned the win as he allowed just two hits in relief while going three innings on the bump.
Scouting the Vulcans
Cal finished the regular season with an overall record of 25-15 and a conference record of 16-12. The Vulcans are coming off a weekend in which they took three of four games from the Golden Knights as the clinched a playoff spot on Saturday. Jacob McCaskey and Louden Conte are the only two Cal hitters to be hitting over .300 this season. Five of the qualified Vulcan hitters are hitting between .299 and .200, overall the team has a combined .261 batting average while they have hit 35 homers with McCaskey leading the way with 10. Opponents are hitting .273 against them this season, while the team ERA is 4.57. Patrick Gumto is their leader of the bullpen as he has appeared in 20 games and has an ERA of 2.23. Their top starter is Nick Riggle as he has a 3.15 ERA in 11 starts this season, he has struckout 50 hitters and opponents are hitting .278 against him.
Up Next
The second round will start on May 16th with a best of three series with the highest seed in both the east and west hosting. The winner of the Lakers and Cal will face the winner of Gannon and Seton Hill. In the east Millersville will host Shepard while West Chester and Bloomsburg will square off in the opening round.
Fan Policy
Mercyhurst announced their fan policy for the PSAC Playoffs, it can be found here.
