Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Millersville

Millersville vs. Seton Hill game 2 of the NCAA DII Atlantic Super Regional action at Cooper Park in Millersville on Saturday, May 27, 2023. Mark Palczewski/Millersville Athletics.
Mark Palczewski/Millersville Ath

Marauders take top seed into the NCAA Division II Championship Tournament

| By: Ethan Hulsey, Director of Athletic Communications

COVERAGE LINKS

CHAMPIONSHIP OVERVIEW

  • The Millersville Marauders make their fourth appearance at the NCAA Division II Championship Tournament after sweeping PSAC Champion and then-No. 8 ranked Seton Hill in the Super Regional. It is the third trip to Cary under Coach Jon Shehan, who previously won regional championships in 2011 and 2016. Millersville is playing in its 10th-straight NCAA Tournament, which is the longest active streak of any team in the Atlantic Region. This is the 11th overall appearance for Shehan in his 15 seasons as the head coach. Millersville was granted the No. 1 seed among the final eight teams, boasting a 45-8 record against the 11th-toughest schedule in all of Division II. The only team remaining with a better strength of schedule than Millersville is Rollins, which is on the same side of the bracket. Millersville’s .849 winning percentage is also second only to Angelo State’s .852.
  • Saturday’s game is the first-ever match-up between Millersville and UIndy. Millersville has played only two of the teams in the field previously. Rollins and Millersville last met on March 25, 1993, and Augustana and Millersville played three-game series in 1996 and 2000.

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

  • Millersville closed the regular season with 14 wins in their final 15 games, and that lone loss was by one run to PSAC runner-up and NCAA regional qualifier West Chester. After scoring one run and losing in the first round of the PSAC Tournament to Indiana (Pa.), Millersville won all five NCAA regional games, averaging 8.0 runs and 12.8 hits per game. In the Super Regional, Millersville scored 20 runs and hit six home runs against Seton Hill, which entered the series with the No. 2-ranked ERA in the nation.
  • The No. 2 ERA in Division II now belongs to Millersville (3.27), which held the No. 1 spot until after the Super Regional. Millersville’s pitching staff has been a strength all season, ranking second in WHIP (1.23), second in hits allowed per nine innings (7.60), 14th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.54) and 19th in walks allowed per nine innings (3.43). Millersville allowed more than four runs just 16 times and still managed to go 12-4 in those games.
  • At the plate, Millersville boasts six regular starters hitting over .300 with a .400 or higher OBP. The top five hitters in the lineup are all hitting .341 or higher, and all five have at least 14 doubles. Four of the five have stolen double-digit bases. A key to success in the postseason has been the production of the bottom half of the lineup. Justin Taylor has hit .385 with two doubles, a home run and six RBIs in his last four games after receiving just nine starts in the team’s first 48 games. Millersville’s No. 6, No. 7, No. 8 and No. 9 hitters combined for five home runs in the two wins over Seton Hill.
  • Sam Morris and Keegan Soltis have been particularly hot at the plate in the NCAA Tournament. Morris had a run of eight hits in eight at-bats to start the regional and went 13-for-23 (.565) with 11 RBIs in the five games. Keegan Soltis hit .474 with six RBIs, and Bren Taylor hit .455 with 10 runs scored. Soltis is riding an 18-game hitting streak into the NCAA Championship Tournament.
  • Playing in close games or playing from behind won’t phase the Marauders. Millersville is 9-2 in one-run games and 15-5 in games decided by two runs or fewer. Millersville trailed into the fourth inning in three of the five NCAA playoff games and were tied into the fifth against Charleston. The fourth and fifth innings--the second time through the lineup--are Millersville’s most productive innings. The team has scored over 33% of their runs (131 total) in those two innings. Millersville’s magic number is six. The Marauders are 32-0 when scoring six or more runs.

QUICK HITS

  •  ANYTHING BUT AVERAGE: Career batting average is a Millersville record that has stood for 32 years, and no one has come within 30 points of it since. Bren Taylor is now chasing that record, boasting a .407 average--just points away from Mike McCarter’s .410 mark set in 1991. Taylor is the first Marauder since 1977 to hit over .400 twice, and he’s done it in 419 at-bats where Jay Johnson (1976-77) and Bob Rossi (1975, ’77) combined for just 230 at bats over two seasons. Taylor is the only Marauder with more than 300 at-bats to hit over .400, and he’s logged 249 hits in 612 at-bats. Taylor has 22 multi-hit games this season alone. He is the only Marauder to win the PSAC East Athlete of the Year Award twice, and he, and Chas McCormick ’17 are the only Marauder position players named All-Atlantic Region First Team three times.
  • RED-HOT SHORTSTOP: An All-American, the consensus Atlantic Region Player of the Year and single-season home run record setter in 2022, Thomas Caufield got off to a slow start in 2023. He hit .222 with no home runs through the team’s first 16 games. He hit his first homer on March 4, and he really started rolling on March 7. Over the last 34 games, Caufield slashed .394/.490/.724 with seven homers, 17 doubles and 40 RBIs, drawing 24 walks compared to 22 strikeouts. In the last 18 games, Caufield posted a .438/.500/.918 line with 19 extra-base hits.
  • STRENGTH IN THE BULLPEN: Millersville’s bullpen has combined to post a 20-1 record with nine saves. The Marauders are 35-1 when leading after the sixth inning, 25-0 when leading after seven and 27-0 when leading after eight. Evan Rishell is Millersville’s go-to arm in high leverage situations. He is 5-0 with a 0.97 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. He’s pitched at least two innings in each of his last six appearances.
  • MILLERSVILLE’S ACE: Millersville has long history of outstanding starting pitching, and Carson Kulina has carried on that tradition. Millersville has produced at last one All-PSAC East First Team starting pitcher in 10 of the last 12 seasons. Kulina, who transferred in from Division III Shenandoah where he was primarily a reliever, moved into the rotation and led the PSAC in wins (9) and ranked third in ERA (2.19).
  • RUNNING DOWN A RECORD: Jimmy Losh is among the most productive players in Millersville history with 211 starts, ranking in the career top 10 in hits, runs, extra-base hits, walks, doubles and triples. In the NCAA Super Regional, Losh scored his 219th run, moving him into a tie for first with now-Houston Astros center fielder Chas McCormick ’17. Losh is 11 runs shy of the all-time PSAC record. Losh ranks sixth among active of Division II players in career runs scored, and two of the players ranked ahead of him are in the tournament--North Greenville’s John Michael Faile (239) and Angelo State’s Jordan Williams (236). Losh is Millersville’s leadoff hitter, and as he goes, so go the Marauders. In Millersville’s 45 wins, Losh hit .382 with a .497 OBP and 45 runs (1.0 per game). While the sample size isn’t nearly as large, Losh hit .231 without drawing a walk and scored just one run in the team’s eight losses.
  • FAMILY TIES: The thread of family runs throughout the Millersville baseball program. Catcher John Seibert and pitcher Matt Seibert are brothers. John caught Matt’s nine-inning complete game (the first by a Marauder since 2017) on April 25 and also caught his regular season start vs. Bloomsburg and the NCAA Regional winning performance over West Chester. Additional family connections include cousins Cole and Dale Houser, and Carson Kulina is the younger brother of Kaylor Kulina, who was a two-time All-PSAC East First Team pick for the Marauders in 2018-19. Coach Shehan is also rooted at Millersville. His grandfather graduated from Millersville, his father worked at Millersville for more than 30 years, and his wife, Lindsay, is a Millersville alum. She was a cheerleader as a student and later the cheer team coach.
  • MAKING THE PLAYS: Jimmy Losh is as solid defensively as they come at second base. He has committed just three errors in 144 chances with 82 assists. Losh’s .979 fielding percentage ranks first in the PSAC among the 59 players with at least 35 assists. Freshman Matthew Williams has acclimated to the collegiate game quite well, committing just two errors in 384 chances, which were the third-most among PSAC players. Of the 80 PSAC players with at least 120 chances, only one non-catcher posted a better fielding percentage than Williams. Outfielders Chase Simmons and Bren Taylor have combined for 176 putouts and six assists without committing an error. 
     
Loading...

Upcoming Schedule

{{ moment(game.date).format('MMM D, YYYY') }} {{ game.time ? 'at ' + game.time : '' }}
{{ game.sport.title }} {{ game.location_indicator === 'A' ? 'at' : 'vs' }}
{{ game.opponent.title }}

Related Videos

Now Playing:

Related Stories