Erie, Pa. - After a pair of cancellations, Mercyhurst Baseball looks to get back out on the diamond this week with a three-game schedule. The Lakers begin things with Salem on Thursday, March 16th, for a doubleheader with Grand Valley State to follow on Friday at 2:00 p.m.

1. Fresh Legs

The Lakers have seen each of their last two series get nixed as their travels to Findlay this past weekend was canceled along with a trip to face Notre Dame (Oh.) on Tuesday. If Erie's unforgiving weather holds out this time around, Mercyhurst will see a total of 10 days between contests with their last game coming against Salem on March 6th in a 9-8 win. That time off hopefully proves big as the Lakers look to add a few wins to their total and find themselves over .500 going into the back half of March.

2. Team Leaders

Eric Chorba has been the team's top hitter this season with a .333 average while leading the team in OPS (1.231), triples (2), and RBIs (8) while being tied for the team lead in hits (7) and home runs (1). He is followed by Vincent Stutz who has a .350/.510/.600 triple slash line while being tied for the team lead in doubles with two and coming in second in walks with six. On the mound, Daniel Thomas has 18 strikeouts for the team lead while teams are hitting only .195 against him. Jacob Bazala owns a 3.27 ERA and a 1.55 WHIP with 11 Ks in 11 innings of work.

3. Home Field Advantage

Mercyhurst has gotten it done on their own field recently with a home record of 74-24 since the beginning of the 2017 season. The team has won 13 or more games on their own turf in each of those seasons with 17 being their high water mark during the 2021 campaign when they finished 27-15 overall. Last year was especially good at home for the Lakers as they outscored opponents 176-89 within their friendly confines with coach Spano's crew having 15 games in which they scored seven or more runs and eight in which they cracked double-digits. 

4. Scouting the Opponents

Salem is 5-11 on the season, riding a two-game losing streak into the contests. The Thursday series will be the Tiger's first true road trip of the season as they have played all but one game at home so far. Grand Valley State is 9-4 on the year with them winning each of their last five games. Their offense has found their groove of late, scoring 41 runs over those five games with three games of 10 or more runs. 

5. Next Game

Mercyhurst goes back out on the road next week as they are set to take on Ashland on Tuesday, March 21st, while beginning their conference schedule next weekend with Slippery Rock on Friday away in a double header before hosting The Rock the following day with times of 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.