Erie, Pa. - The final full week of the month of April saw the weather finally start to warm up and with that came some hot performances on the field, diamond, and pool. The best efforts came from women's lacrosse's Whitley Easton and Chris Juchno of baseball, helping them being named the PPG Athletes of the Week.
Easton and the Lakers played in a pair of games during the week with the team splitting thanks to a big win over Edinboro, 19-6, before falling 15-11 to Seton Hill on Saturday, April 27th. Easton was a big part in both of those games with the sophomore having a total of 11 points across the two contests, scoring nine goals while adding two assists to her line. She finished with four goals and one assist against Edinboro on the 23rd before tying her career-high in goals for a single game with five in matchup number two of the week, having one assist against the Griffins as well.
Easton has proved to be the best weapon on offense for the Lakers to this point with the team-lead in goals (35), assists (21), and points (56) while coming in fourth in shot percentage among players with 30 or more shots attempted. Her defense has been strong as well with the team lead in ground balls with the third-most caused turnovers with 11, coming in just behind Amanda Bailey and Ellie Schau. Easton's scoring has gone to another level here of late with four-straight games with multiple goals and seven such performances in her last eight games and she'll look to keep that hot streak alive in the team's final week of the regular season.
The Lakers wrap up their regular season schedule this week with a game against Gannon today at 4:00 p.m., visiting the Golden Knights for that matchup before hosting Slippery Rock on Friday, May 3rd, at 5:00 p.m. on the team's senior day.
Juchno and the Lakers ended up taking three against California (Pa.) in a four-game series over the course of the weekend to help Mercyhurst clinch a spot in the PSAC Tournament. The Erie native played a big role in helping the team to those trio of wins as he hit .600 (9-15) with a SLG above 1.500 during that time. He started things off on the road against the Vulcans in a two-game set in which he hit a home run in each game. He then bested those two bombs in the finale on Saturday with three home runs in game number two to become the first Laker to have three or more home runs in a game since Philip Ferranti in 2022 when he did so against Seton Hill in late April.
Juchno is now hitting .344 on the season with a team-best .672 SLG for an OPS of 1.114, the best among the Lakers. His five homers on the weekend now has him first on the team in the category with nine, having 21 extra base hits overall for the most on the team. Those numbers are not only tops among the Lakers, but also in the conference as his OPS is fifth in the PSAC while his SLG comes in second as do his home runs and extra base hits, making him one of the more feared hitters in the conference. Since the calendar has flipped to April Juchno has been on a tear, batting .393 with a SLG of .642, hitting 15 of his 21 extra base hits in that time and looks to keep things rolling into the final week of the regular season.
Juchno and the Lakers return to PSAC West play against IUP on Thursday, May 2nd, on the road while seeing the Crimson Hawks the next day for a doubleheader at home at 1:00 p.m.
