Erie, Pa. - After winning four straight games against Gannon this past weekend, the Lakers are now 17-6 on the season with a mark of 11-1 in the PSAC, riding an eight-game win streak. Mercyhurst takes a break from conference play as they see Findlay tomorrow, April 11th, for a pair of games before beginning a four-game series with UPJ on Friday at home while finishing up the series on the road the following day.

UPJ is a familiar foe for Mercyhurst as the two teams have played 36 times before with the Lakers coming out on top in 28 of those contests. Mercyhurst has gotten the better of the Mountain Cats here recently with them winning seven of the last 10 matchups, outscoring their counterpart 61-33 over that span.

2. Going Streaking

The Lakers have won each of their last eight games with them sweeping both Clarion and Gannon in back-to-back series. They have outscored their opponent 54-19 over that stretch, including three-straight games of 10 or more runs scored to go along with four games of allowing two or fewer runs. It is the longest streak for the team since the 2019 season when they won nine straight.

3. Pitching a Fit

The Lakers allowed only five runs across four games against the Golden Knights this past weekend, including a pair of shutouts in their 11-0 and 1-0 wins. Pitching has been one of the strong suits for the team up to this point as they have the fourth-lowest ERA in the PSAC at 3.96. A large part of that has been Jarrett Heilman who has been one of the better pitchers in the conference to this part of the year as he has the third-lowest ERA in the PSAC (1.58) while holding batters to a .184 batting average, the second lowest in the conference.

4. Scouting Findlay

The Oilers are 16-14 on the season up to this point, winning each of their last four games. Pitching has been an issue for Findlay as they have a team ERA of 5.83 while allowing a batting average of .281. Their offense has proven good with their backstop Aiden Lao leading the way as he leads the team in average (.364), OBP (.478), SLG (.627), and doubles (12) while swiping nine bases in 13 attempts.

5. Scouting the Mountain Cats

UPJ comes off of a four-game sweep of Clarion to help them improve to 12-18 on the season while holding a 5-7 record in the PSAC for fourth in the West. Pitching has not been a strength for the Mountain Cats to this point in the season with a team ERA of 6.43 for the second-highest in the PSAC while allowing a conference-worst .305 batting average. Their offense has been spearheaded by the trio of Dylan Broderick, Jake Ansell, and Josh Ulery as each has an OPS above .900 with Broderick's mark of 1.163 being good enough for third in the PSAC.