TOURNAMENT OVERVIEW
• The Millersville Marauders return to Cary, N.C., and the NCAA Division II Championship Tournament for the first time since 2011 and for the third time in program history. The Marauders reached the final site after going 3-0 in the NCAA Atlantic Regional, which included back-to-back wins over No. 18-ranked Mercyhurst. The Marauders are 2-4 all-time in championship, defeating fellow 2016 qualifier Central Missouri by a 1-0 score in 2011 and scoring a win over St. Joseph's in 1998.
• Millersville's starting lineup includes eight players that started in at least one NCAA Tournament game in 2015. Millersville has played 17 NCAA regional games and 32 total postseason games since 2013. Shortstop
Tyler Orris has started all 32 of those games, followed by
Jeremy Musser and
Dan Stoltzfus with 24 starts. Stoltzfus owns a career .343 average with 30 RBIs in the postseason.
David Summerfield is hitting .423 in his last two postseasons. Among the pitching staff,
Brandon Miller will make his fourth NCAA Tournament start in the last three years and it is his seventh postseason appearance. In three career NCAA starts, Miller has allowed just four earned runs (1.71 ERA) over 21 innings while striking out 21.
Jim McDade has made seven career postseason starts, including three in the NCAA Tournament. His last two have totaled 14.0 innings with three earned runs allowed and seven strikeouts. • Millersville draws Angelo State in the opening round. The programs have never met and have no common opponents this season. It will mark the first time that Millersville has played any team from the state of Texas. Members of the Lone Star Conference (LSC), Angelo State lost in its conference tournament championship game to West Texas A&M but rebounded in the regional by defeating the same team in the opening round. Angelo State went 4-0 in the regional, allowing only just 2.25 runs per game. The Rams led the Lone Star Conference in hitting (.301) and ERA (3.33). Pitcher Bryce Zak and shortstop Paxton DeLaGarza were both named ABCA All-Region first Team. Zak set the LSC record for strikeouts (266) and the Angelo State record (143) this season.
MARAUDER CONSISTENCY
• Millersville set a program record with 50 wins in 2016, but the Marauders have been as consistent as any program since 2011. The Marauders qualified for a fourth consecutive regional tournament (fifth in the last six years) and was the No. 1 seed four times since 2011. They won a fourth consecutive PSAC Eastern Division title in 2016--a feat no accomplished since Mansfield won five in a row from 1992-96. Millersville has won at least 39 games in five of the last six seasons.
SHEHAN TO THE TOP
• All of the Marauder accomplishments listed since 2011 have happened under the watch of head coach
Jon Shehan. Shehan took over a Marauder program in 2008 that was coming off of a 9-37 record and hadn't had a winning record in seven seasons. In his first season of 2008, Shehan's Marauders won the PSAC East title--the first of six in nine seasons. Shehan has since compiled 313 wins, tying him for the all-time wins lead at Millersville. His .662 winning percentage is also just percentage points shy of Millersville Hall of Famer Gene Wise's record. Since 2013, Shehan's Marauders have gone 174-50 (.776).
THE BIG 5-0
• Millersville hit the 50-win milestone for the first time in program history and was one of just two programs in the country to do so in 2016. The Marauders' .909 winning percentage ranks first not only in Division II, but in all of the NCAA regardless of Division. The 50 wins also gave Millersville a PSAC record for wins in a season, passing the 2007 Kutztown club, which totaled 49 ( ). The last Division II team to win 50 games and win the national championship was West Florida (52-9) in 2011. The all-time Division II record for winning percentage was set at .939 by the 46-3 Savannah State team in 2000.
RUN DIFFERENTIAL
• Millersville led the PSAC with 489 runs scored, ranking fourth all-time just 28 shy of the conference record. The previous school record was 424 (2000). At the same time, the Marauders allowed just 175 runs, ranking second in the PSAC. The Marauders' plus-314 run differential (plus 5.71 per game) led the PSAC. Millersville also averaged more than a run per game in the first, third, fourth, and sixth innings. It averaged 1.51 runs per game in the sixth, outscoring opponents by a total of 63 runs in that inning alone.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME
• Millersville went 20-0 at Cooper Park in 2016 and was the only team in Division II to go unbeaten at home. Millersville's home winning streak of 27 games began in 2015. The Marauders hit .388 at The Coop while holding opponents to a .204 average. They outscored opponents 166-37 in those 20 games.
CATCHING HISTORY
•
Mitch Stoltzfus is having one of the all-time great Marauder seasons both at the dish and behind the plate. The junior is one of only three Marauder catchers since 2002 to earn All-PSAC East honors. He became the first to pick up a postseason award since now-Millersville University Director of Athletics
Miles Gallagher in 2010, and the first to earn first team honors since
Jon Shehan in 2004.
DELIVERING IN THE CLUTCH
•
Dan Stoltzfus is the greatest run producer in Millersville history, setting the school record with now 175 RBIs. Stoltzfus has 148 of those RBIs over the last two seasons, spanning 107 games played. He ranks fourth among active Division II players in career RBIs. In seven postseason games this season, Stoltzfus has driven in 14 runs.
• Stoltzfus is hitting a remarkable .485 (47-of-97) with runners in scoring position and has knocked in 19-of-28 runners from third base with less than two outs. Nearly half--31--of his 67 RBIs have come with two outs in the inning.
COUSINS OF DESTRUCTION
• Dan and
Mitch Stoltzfus are first cousins and attended Pequea Valley High School together. Not surprisingly, they helped the program to a Lancaster-Lebanon League Championship. The cousins were both All-Atlantic Region First Team selections in 2016 and have combined to hit .421 with 16 homers, 129 RBIs and 38 doubles. Mitch was the first of the two to pass the school's single season hits record, but Dan has since caught up and holds an 87 to 86 edge entering the tournament. Both are slugging over .615 and own an OBP over .464.
NO WALK IN THE PARK
• Don't expect many free passes when facing the Millersville pitching staff. The Marauders issued just 121 walks in 431 1/3 innings, ranking fifth in Division II in walks per nine innings, ninth in strikeout to walk ratio and fifth in WHIP (1.18).
• Individually,
Jim McDade and
Brandon Miller are two of the best when it comes to keeping pitches in the strike zone. McDade walked just seven batters all season, ranking him fourth in Division II. Miller wasn't far behind, ranking 11th. McDade ranked 25th in the same category in 2015. In 281 career innings pitched, McDade has issued just 51 walks. He's never walked more than 17 in a season and ranks 30th among all active DII pitchers in career walks per nine. Miller ranks 14th among active pitchers.
THE WINNING STREAK
• After a loss to Winston-Salem State on Feb. 6, Millersville went on a record-setting run of 22 consecutive wins. The streak did not end until March 26. The streak set a PSAC record for consecutive victories. The only other PSAC team to win more than 20 games was West Chester in 2012, which went on to win the national championship.
THE SUMMERFIELD STORY
• •
David Summerfield was one of the heroes of the 2015 PSAC Championship. He was named the tournament MVP after going 10-for-19 with four multi-hit games, eight runs scored and six RBIs. But just a week later, the nation's No. 2 hitter (.452 average) suffered essentially a season-ending knee injury. Just eight months later, Summerfield returned to the starting lineup on opening day of 2016. He struggled early and after the first 13 games he was hitting just .216. Summerfield then ripped off an eight-game hitting streak. Summerfield has upped his average to .355 and is hitting .423 since March 12--a span of 32 games played. Summerfield is hitting .370 in seven postseason games.
G.O.A.T?
• Shortstop
Tyler Orris is making a claim for that one of the all-time greats at Millersville. The shortstop opened his career with 204 consecutive starts before being sidelined for a week with an injury. But Orris ranks second among active DII players in games played (219), eighth in hits (272), seventh in runs scored (195), and fourth in stolen bases (98). Orris owns Millersville records in six categories and recently set a PSAC record for career assists with 646 (career fielding percentage of .965). He ranks third in PSAC history in career steals and ranks in the top six in hits and runs.
MILLER TIME
•
Brandon Miller was a 12-game winner and All-Atlantic Region selection in 2015 but really burst onto the scene with an All-Star performance and team MVP selection in the Cape Cod League last summer. Miller was the only Division II player named to the league's season-end all-star team. He went 4-0 with a 1.50 ERA for the Chatham Anglers.
• He picked up right where he left off and was named Atlantic Region Pitcher of the Year by the NCBWA and D2CCA after leading Division II in WHIP (0.70) and setting a Millersville single season record with 100 strikeouts. Miller, just a junior, is already tied for second in career wins at Millersville, totaling a 26-7 career record with 215 strikeouts in 220 innings.
• A Brett Tomko Award finalist, Miller ranked sixth in DII in ERA, third in strikeout to walk ratio and 11th in walks per nine.
WHITE-HOT McCORMICK
•
Chas McCormick was named the Atlantic Regional Most Outstanding Player after hitting .417 with a .500 on base percentage and three stolen bases.
• McCormick is the only Marauder ever to be an All-PSAC East selection in each of his first three seasons. He is a two-time first team pick. He is also a two-time All-Atlantic Region selection. McCormick has been on an unreal run over the last 20 games, hitting .554 (41-for-74) with a .622 on base percentage. He's driven in a run per game, scored 24 and stolen 17 bases in that span. McCormick is hitting a team-best .440 with a .559 on base percentage and five steals in seven postseason games.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
•
Chas McCormick isn't the first McCormick to play in the NCAA Division II Championship for the Marauders. His older brother, Ryan, was the starting second baseman on and leadoff hitter for the 2011 club that won the Atlantic Regional. Chas has three brothers and all three were/are collegiate baseball players. Along with Ryan, Sean played shortstop at Kutztown, and Chas' twin brother Jason was recently named ABCA All-Atlantic Region Second Team at Division III Immaculata.
SURPRISING SNYDER
• The only player in Millersville's lineup not on the field in the 2015 NCAA Tournament is redshirt freshman
Ben Snyder, who transferred in from Pittsburgh in the offseason. Snyder shared catching duties with
Mitch Stoltzfus for the first half of the season but became a full-time player, starting at catcher and DH on April 10. He has made a significant impact since. Over the last 22 games, Snyder has posted a .481 batting average with a .523 on base percentage. He has nine doubles and two homers in that stretch, and his .696 slugging percentage is tops on the team. He has 14 multi-hit games in his last 22.
IMPACT ROOKIES
• Freshman
Cordell Shannon became the first-ever Marauder pitcher to win the PSAC East Freshman of the Year Award and also set a school record for wins by a freshman. Reliever
Mike Mock leads the team with four saves.
