Erie, Pa. - Mercyhurst baseball is set to wrap up the regular season potion of their schedule this week with the team taking on the Crimson Hawks. Both IUP and the Lakers have secured their spot in the PSAC Tournament and now look to fight for a position at the top of the PSAC West.
Looking Back
The Lakers are 20-16 on the season with a 17-7 mark in the PSAC, after dropping eight of their first 10 games to open the year, the team turned it on once conference play opened up. Mercyhurst was especially dominant in the month of April, going 13-4 over that time as they won four-straight conference series. Their offense was a big reason for that strong run in the month with a total of 126 runs scored for an average of 7.4 runs per game, reaching double figures four times with 16 in their most recent contest and they now look to carry their hot bats into the new month.
Where They Stand
Mercyhurst currently sits tied for the top spot in the PSAC West with Seton Hill with both teams owning a 17-7 record. IUP comes in right behind at 16-8 while Slippery Rock rounds out the top four, going 14-10 to this point. In the East, Millersville and East Stroudsburg are tied for first at 23-5 while West Chester is 21-7 to be next in line. Shippensburg is the other team to claim a playoff spot at 19-13.
Laker Leaders
Mitchell Grosch currently leads the Lakers in batting average with a clip of .390 while his 46 hits are tied with Zachary Kourous for most on the team. Kourous has the most RBIs (37) stolen bases (15), and triples (3) of anyone while his 10 strikeouts are the fewest among hitters with 100 or more plate appearances. Chris Juchno has also carried a big stick to this point with the team lead in OPS, 1.114 to go along with a team-high 21 extra base hits thanks to his nine home runs. On the mound, Corbin Foy has the lowest ERA among qualified pitchers with a mark of 2.15 to go along with his 46.0 innings of work, fanning a team-high 61 batters while allowing a minuscule batting average against of .134.
Juchno's Big Week
Chris Juchno comes off of one of the best weeks of his career. The Erie native played a big role in helping the team to those trio of wins this past weekend 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. 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.
What's Next
Mercyhurst now eyes the conference tournament which is set to begin on Wednesday, May 8th, with all competition taking place inside Jack Critchfield Park on the campus of Slippery Rock.
