ABOUT THE GAMES

• A trio of nine-inning games are on tap for the Marauders this weekend. It all begins with a home contest at Cooper Park on Friday afternoon versus Chestnut Hill, a team that took two of three games from East Stroudsburg in its opening series of 2021. ESU was voted No. 2 in the 2021 PSAC East Preseason Baseball poll behind Millersville, who was voted No. 1.
• The Marauders have never lost to Chestnut Hill in four total meetings and have outscored them by a margin of 39-18.
• After Friday's tilt, Millersville hits the road to western Pennsylvania for another game with Clarion University (who the team defeated twice last weekend) and then treks to Seton Hill University on Sunday to face the host Griffins.
• The game against Clarion will be held at a neutral site on California University of Pennsylvania's field.
• Senior catcher Luke Trainer is locked-in at the plate. He was awarded both the weekly NCBWA Atlantic Region and PSAC East Baseball Athlete of the Week awards after hitting for the cycle in his first game of the season and notching a dominant 6-for-7 performance with nine RBIs last Saturday. He also ended the 2020 season 8-for-8; so in his last 15 at-bats, he has collected 14 hits, 17 RBIs, and three home runs.
• Senior pitcher Jeff Taylor was named the PSAC East Pitcher of the Week. Taylor and fellow starter Alex Mykut both picked up wins in their first appearances of the season, and, after a full six days of rest, should be back on the mound this weekend for their second starts of 2021.
• Two new faces, freshman Zach Chowansky and University of Evansville transfer Pete Vaccaro, suited up for the first time in the black-and-gold last Saturday. Chowansky started both games in right field while first baseman Vaccaro was arguably the team's second-best hitter behind Trainer. Pete finished the day 4-for-6 with two RBIs, three runs scored, and a stolen base.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS

• Chestnut Hill's offense is paced by senior Ameir Uzzell (.250, one HR, five RBIs) and junior Andrew Dietz (.455, one HR, eight total bases). Dietz also was the starting pitcher in Wednesday's 7-6 win over East Stroudsburg and did not surrender a run through his three innings of work.
• Millersville has won seven straight games against Clarion University.
• The last time the Ville met Seton Hill was in the first round of the 2019 PSAC Tournament. The Marauders won the game 8-5 to advance.
• Seton Hill is off to a fast start in 2021, notching two victories over Shippensburg and one over Glenville State by a combined 19-4 runs.

THOUGHTS FROM COACH SHEHAN

• “Our theme for the week has been ”the opponent doesn't matter." It's an interesting weekend ahead. We play at home against a team we don't know anything about, then we go to a neutral site and play a team we know a lot about. Then we stay on the road and play a very good team we have history with, but don't have a lot of specifics in terms of their current club. It's a great test."