ABOUT THE NCAA REGIONAL

• Just two wins away from Cary, N.C. Only 16 teams in Division II are still playing baseball, and it is fitting that Millersville and Seton Hill are the teams vying to represent the Atlantic Region at the NCAA Division II Championship Tournament. These two teams are unquestionably the two best teams in the region. They entered the regional as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. Millersville is ranked No. 7 in the Collegiate Baseball Poll, and Seton Hill is No. 8. Only two teams in the country have more wins that Seton Hill's 48, and Millersville, 43-8, boasts an .843 winning percentage that is matched by only four teams in the nation. Seton Hill and Millersville rank No. 1 and No. 2 respectively among PSAC teams in average, runs, doubles and RBIs. Seton Hill's pitching staff is No. 1 in strikeouts while Millersville is No. 2. Millersville is No. 1 in batting average against, and Seton Hill is second. Millersville is No. 1 in the nation in ERA (3.21). Seton Hill ranks third (3.29). This best-of-three series features the PSAC East champ (Millersville) vs. the PSAC West and tournament champ (Seton Hill). Seton Hill landed five All-Atlantic Region selections and Millersville boasts five honorees including the consensus region player of the year in Bren Taylor. Taylor was the region's leading hitter until after the regional when his .413 average was topped by Vincenzo Rauso of Seton Hill, who is now up to .421. Millersville's Jon Shehan and Seton Hill's Marc Marizzaldi were the PSAC divisional coach of the year award winners as well. 
• The Super Regional begins Friday at 1 p.m. and continues Saturday at 11 a.m. A split in the first two games would force a third deciding game, which would begin 30 minutes after Saturday's first game. 

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

• Millersville is 15-2 since April 11 and has won nine of its last 10 home games with the one loss coming to West Chester by one run. Millersville bounced back from its one-and-done appearance in the PSAC Tournament by scoring three wins in last week's regional over the Mountain East Conference champ Charleston and the defending Atlantic Region champ West Chester. Millersville played the No. 20 toughest schedule in Division II this season, and of its eight losses, only one was to a team that finished with a sub-.500 record. Four of the losses were to teams that reached the NCAA Tournament. Millersville went 15-4 against NCAA Tournament teams. Millersville has grown accustomed to playing close games as six of their last eight wins have been by three runs or fewer.
• Millersville's staff and its Division II-leading ERA is led by consensus All-Atlantic Region First Team starting pitcher Carson Kulina. Kulina made his postseason debut in game one of the NCAA regional. He went 6 1/3 innings against Charleston, scattering nine hits and allowing two runs. Freshman Matt Seibert also made his postseason debut in game two and worked 6 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits. Ben Wilchacky and Alex Mykut went back-to-back in the third and final game of the weekend. Mykut allowed just one run in four innings. The Marauders' bullpen is deep and effective. Evan Rishell was named D2CCA All-Atlantic Region Second Team with a 5-0 record and 0.80 ERA. He pitched the final 2 1/3 innings of Millersville's game three win over West Chester and did not allow a baserunner.
• Taylor is 7-for-16 in Millersville's four postseason games. After starting 1-for-9 in the postseason, Jimmy Losh went 5-for-10 with five runs scored in Millersville's two wins over West Chester last weekend. Since April 16--a stretch of 14 games--Thomas Caufield has been on a different level. He's hitting .491 with 26 hits in those 14 games. That total includes 20 runs, 25 RBIs, eight doubles, six homers, two triples and an absurd 56 total bases. He's also walked nine times while striking out seven.
• Sam Morris has also put together a strong stretch run. He had a hit in eight-straight at-bats in the regional, including a 5-for-5 performance against Charleston. Since April 11--a stretch of 15 games and 11 starts--Morris is Millersville's third-best hitter with .405 average.
• Losh is closing in on a significant record. With 217, he sits just two runs shy of Chas McCormick's PSAC record for career runs. Losh is also up to 258 career hits, which ranks fourth all-time. He and Taylor are tied for first with 14 career triples. Caufield is one homer from tying hall of famer Ryan Brink for No. 2 on the career list. His 22 doubles also sit just two shy of tying Dan Stoltzfus' single-season record. Jon Shehan's 23 in 2004 sit in second place.
• Taylor is the only Marauder to win the PSAC East Athlete of the Year award twice, and he and McCormick are the only position players named All-Atlantic Region three times. Taylor's regional performance made him the first player in program history with 80 or more hits in two seasons. He is the only Marauder in the modern era in the first since Bob Rossi and Jay Johnson to hit over .400 twice. He boasts a .405 batting average over 603 career at bats. He is tied for second, and the only other Marauders to post .400 career batting averages all had fewer than 300 at bats.
• Millersville is a tough team to beat at home, boasting a 21-3 record. The Marauders are hitting .316 as a team and holding opponents to a .214 average. Millersville has outscored teams 167-64 at Cooper Park, hitting 17 home runs to opponents' six. Seton Hill is an aggressive team on the base paths, but Millersville has surrendered just 17 stolen bases at home while swiping 49-of-57. No hitter loves being at home more than Losh, who owns a .435 average and .550 OBP in 21 games. Caufield boasts a .378 average and .480 OBP, and Morris is a .377 hitter at home. 
   

SCOUTING SETON HILL

• Seton Hill has been one of the hottest teams in the country over the last month, winning 10 of their last 11 games. The run includes a dominant PSAC Tournament in which the Griffins outscored their opponents 48-8. Since the postseason began, Seton Hill has scored double-digit runs in seven of 11 games. Seton Hill's regular season included a 17-game winning streak and a stretch in which it went 31-1. The only hiccups for Seton Hill in the month of May came against Mercyhurst. The Lakers split the regular season series and then stole one in the second round of the regional. Seton Hill answered back by winning two games over the Lakers last Saturday to advance. Seton Hill went 13-8 against NCAA Tournament teams this season. 
• There may not be a hitter in the country as hot as Vincenzo Rauso. The catcher is riding a nine-game hitting streak with 21 hits and 13 RBIs since May 10. Rauso also leads the team with 30 stolen bases. Rauso leads all PSAC hitters in average and OBP. Third baseman Jack Oberdorf had a 10-game hitting streak snapped in the regional final, but still managed to score two runs in the game. Oberdorf tops the PSAC in home runs (14) and RBIs (56). PSAC West Freshman of the Year, Jack Whalen, is the PSAC leader with 64 runs scored. All nine players with at least 22 starts are hitting over .300.
• Seton Hill doesn't just rely on its offense. The Griffins rank second in Division II with a .980 fielding percentage and have committed more than one error in just one of the last 27 games. That game was an 8-6 loss to Mercyhurst in last week's regional. On the mound, the Griffins boast the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the country, fanning 4.70 batters to each walk. Three starters have at least 69 innings pitched and all three hold an ERA of 3.63 or lower. Veteran John McCullough isn't a high strikeout pitcher (55 on the season), but he is a workhorse, posting a 0.94 WHIP in 70 1/3 innings and pitching four complete games. Brandon Bergert was named D2CCA All-Atlantic Region. He and Aidan Layton lead the team with eight wins apiece. The bullpen solid led by Blake Barker, an All-Atlantic Region selection. He has four saves and boasts a .172 batting average against.

SERIES HISTORY

• There is no shortage of postseason history between these two teams and these two coaches. The programs have met 22 times since the first-ever meeting, which fittingly came in the second round of the 2011 Atlantic Regional. Of those 22 games, nine have been played in the NCAA Tournament. Millersville and Seton Hill squared off for the regional title in 2014 and 2021--both of which Seton Hill won. Those represent both of Seton Hill's regional titles. Millersville's two runs to Cary--in 2011 and 2016--both featured second round wins over Seton Hill.
• The vast majority of meetings between the two teams have been played on neutral fields. Millersville trekked to Greensburg (where it is 1-2) for games in 2019 and 2021, and Seton Hill made one trip to Cooper Park. Millersville swept all three games of that March 2018 series, including a 13-inning, 4-3 win in the finale. That series and the 2011 regional contest played at Clipper Magazine Stadium makes Millersville 4-0 against Seton Hill in games played in Lancaster County. Millersville also hosted regionals in West Lawn, Pa., and Seton Hill went 3-1 at that site, taking two from Millersville in the 2014 regional and eliminating Millersville in 2018. Millersville's 2016 win at West Lawn came by a 2-1 score and featured a complete game from Brandon Miller and a game-ending, game-saving catch from Chas McCormick with two runners on and two outs in the ninth.
• Millersville won seven-straight meetings in the series between 2015 and 2018, but since Seton Hill's win in the 2018 PSAC Championship game, the Griffins have won seven of nine and four in a row. Last season, the teams played a regular season game in Altoona. Millersville's Garrett Blankenbiller tossed five innings and allowed just one run, and Jimmy Losh had three hits, but Seton Hill scored the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth.