Erie, Pa—The Mercyhurst Baseball team is in the midst of an intense PSAC West playoff race, this weekend they face longtime rival Seton Hill in a four game series.
1. The Matchup
The Griffins and Lakers first played in 2010 in which Seton Hill won three of the four non-conference games. The series has been a battle over the last three seasons with the Lakers taking seven wins and the Griffins winning seven. Last season in the regular season Seton Hill took two wins while the Lakers won once. Seton Hill ended the Lakers season in the PSAC Semifinals in 2021.
2. Surowiec Is Still Raking
Josh Surowiec was named PSAC West Athlete of the Week this week for the second time this month. Last week in six games he hit .579 while notching 11 hits and drawing four walks. He also hit five homers and drove in ten runs while also scoring ten runs. This season he is leading the PSAC in hitting with a .464 average while that is the second highest in Division II. He has set career highs in both homers and RBI this season while his current batting average is the highest of his career.
3. Postseason is Almost Here
The Lakers were ranked sixth in the first NCAA Atlantic Regional Poll on Wednesday. In the PSAC West heading into the weekend the Lakers share the top spot with Slippery Rock and Gannon with a 13-7 PSAC record. Seton Hill is currently on the outside of the playoff picture as they sit in fifth with a 10-10 conference record.
4. Honoring Our Seniors
On Friday between games the Mercyhurst senior class will be honored. This class was part of a team that went to back-to-back College World Series in 2018 and 2019. Since 2018, the Lakers have won 130 games in the Laker uniform while 69 of them have been PSAC wins. In 2019, they won the NCAA Super Regional at home to earn a trip the College World Series.
The group includes Josh Surowiec, Ryan Smrekar, Corey Shields, Connor DeMoss, Troy Banks, Jack Elliott, Nathan Holt, Casimer Sobaszek, Matthew Gibson, Philip Ferranti, Logan Martella-Tasick, Josh Greggs, and Hunter Treece.
5. Scouting Seton Hill
The Griffins were also ranked in the first set of regional rankings and were ranked one spot ahead of the Lakers. As a team Seton Hill is hitting .287 this season while they have hit 32 homers. Jack Oberdorf leads the team in hitting with a .340 average, they have three players hitting over .300. Their pitching staff is allowing 3.96 earned runs per game and opponents are hitting just .246 against them. Seton Hill played a pair of non-conference games this week as they faced West Liberty on Tuesday and Wheeling on Wednesday, they won both games. Last weekend they dropped three games to Gannon while avoiding the sweep with a game four win.
