Erie, Pa.—The Mercyhurst Baseball team hosts Lake Erie for a Tuesday doubleheader for the first time this season. The Lakers will also host Salem on Friday as they host their first three home games of the season.
1. Home Sweet Home
The Lakers played their first eight games of the season on the road which included five games in Salem, W.Va. Mercyhurst played 22 games last season on their new field and finished the season with a 17-5 record which included a 8-7 win over Lake Erie and two wins over the Salem Tigers in the early part of the season.
2. Experience Leading The Way
Josh Surowiec is the leading hitter for the Lakers as he is hitting a team high .467 while also hitting three homers and having a .579 on base percentage. Fellow fifth year Laker Troy Banks is second on the team with a .343 batting average while also hitting three homers and driving in ten runs. Returning leading hitter Matthew Gibson is third on the team with a .333 average while being second on the team with a .529 on base percentage. Gibson has also drawn a team high ten walks while Surowiec has been walked six times.
3. Heilman Is Dealing
Sophomore Jarrett Heilman has been nearly unhittable this season on the bump for the Lakers. This season he has a team high 25 strikeouts, he has struckout half of the batter in half of the at bats he has had. The Freeport, PA native has a 1.17 ERA and a .98 WHIP, while also limiting hitters to a .180 batting average.
4. The LONG Ball
Mercyhurst has hit 15 homers this season while allowing just four homers this season. Last season the Lakers nearly doubled up their opponents in homers as they hit 54 round trippers and allowed 28. Nine Lakers have rounded the bases this season as sophomore Aidan Shephard leads the team with four homers after hitting three homers last weekend. Mercyhurst also has a .533 slugging percentage which is third in the conference, their 15 homers in sixth in the conference despite playing in the third least amount of games.
5. The Opponents
Lake Erie is 2-6 this season with their lone wins coming against Southern Indianapolis and a 9-8 win over UIndy. Prior to beating Indianapolis the Storm were blown out by the Greyhounds 26-0. Rece Sabo leads the Storm with a .389 average as he has played in seven of the eight games. As a team they have a 9.71 earned run average while they are only hitting .239.
Mercyhurst and Salem have played each other twice this season and the Lakers have taken each matchup by a combined score 25-8 in those two games. Following the last Laker game, Salem beat Concord 11-2 on Friday. The Tigers are slated to take on Bluefield State in a double header on Tuesday prior to traveling to Erie for a single game on Friday.
