Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst baseball goes back out on the road this upcoming weekend, but a bit closer to home this time around. The team makes the trip to Salem, WV for four games over two days, beginning with Salem on Friday, March 8th, in a doubleheader set to begin at 2:00 p.m. before seeing Findlay on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. for the first of two games.
A Look Back
The Lakers made the trip to Cary, N.C. last weekend to being the month of March, playing in a a trio of contests. The team was unable to come away with a win in those three games, but found themselves in the middle of some tight contests with a 6-4 decision against Frostburg State along with a 5-4 final with West Chester.
Laker Leaders
In the early portion of the season, Mitchell Gross has been one of the team's top hitters with a .500 batting average through seven games with a team-high 13 hits to his line. He is joined in double-digit base knocks by both Zachary Kourous and Luke Jackson who both have 10, hitting .333 and .323 respectively. Kouorus holds the team lead in RBIs with nine to his line to this point while going a perfect 3-3 in stolen base attempts. Jackson leads the way in extra base hits with four, hitting a team-high three doubles and one home run to this point with six RBIs for the second most. On the mount, Corbin Foy leads the way with the best WHIP (1.14), innings pitched (12.1), strikeouts (18) and batting average against (.159) among arms that qualify.
Scouting the Tigers
Salem has been playing well her of late with 10 straight wins for the team. Over that strong stretch, they have allowed only 29 runs for an average of 2.9 per game with three shutouts in that time, claiming their most recent on March 2nd in a 7-0 win over Kutztown. The team has been led on the mound by Frankie Gulko who has started three games so far with 21.1 innings under his belt with a 0.84 ERA to this line to go along with 25 strikeouts. At the plate it has been the work of Mckenzie Wainwright that has acted as the spark with the freshman hitting for a .484/.538/.903 triple slash line, hitting four home runs already this year to go along with his 10 RBIs and five stolen bases.
Scouting Findlay
The Oilers are 4-7 to this point in the year, riding a three-game winning streak into the new weekend. In their most recent run of games, they broke out the brooms against Newberry using their offense to propel them to the wins. In the three game set Findlay scored 30 runs with 11 in game two and a season-high of 13 in the finale. Pitching has been a struggle for the team as they have allowed 107 runs to score for an average of 9.7 runs per game, making for a potentially big day for Mercyhurst's bats.
Next Game
Mercyhurst takes some time off before their next game with the team not returning to action until Friday, March 22nd, when they start PSAC play. The Lakers go on the road to start a four-game set with Seton Hill with first pitch set for 1:00 p.m. in the doubleheader. They then return home the next day to host the Griffins for two beginning at 1:00 p.m.
