ABOUT THE SERIES

• Regular season series don't get much bigger than this. No. 6 Millersville and No. 15 East Stroudsburg, both contending for the PSAC East title, collide at Cooper Park Sunday after beginning the series at East Stroudsburg Saturday. Millersville is 15-1 in PSAC East play, sitting a game behind the Warriors who are not only 16-0 but have won 25 consecutive games. Both teams are off to their best PSAC East starts in program history.
• There is a feeling of deja vu regarding this series, however. Just last season, Millersville and East Stroudsburg played the PSAC's first regular season match-up of top-10 teams since 2015. In 2023, ESU entered the series 27-4 and Millersville at 25-5. The Warriors took two of three games, including giving Millersville its first home loss of the season. It was ESU's first series win over Millersville since 2010. Millersville eventually won the PSAC East, though.
• East Stroudsburg, also ranked No. 10 in the D2 Baseball Insider Poll is coming off a four-game sweep of fourth-place Shippensburg. Neither team has been tested much lately. ESU is 7-2 against teams currently with winning records, and four of those games were against Shippensburg. Millersville is 7-4 against teams above .500. After running a gauntlet out of conference, playing eight games against teams either previously or currently ranked in the nation's top 30, the Marauders have played just one of its last 21 against a team above .500.
• The series features arguably the two most well-rounded clubs in the PSAC. Millersville leads the conference in ERA (3.31), strikeouts (309) and batting average against (.230), while also ranking first in runs scored (281), first in slugging percentage (.495), third in on-base percentage (.450), second in average (.337), first in home runs (32) and first in stolen bases (119). East Stroudsburg is fifth in team ERA (3.73), fourth in batting average against (.238), fourth in strikeouts (241), and first in saves (13). At the plate, the Warriors are third in average (.313) and slugging percentage (.467), second in doubles (61), second in on-base percentage (.450) and third in runs (242).

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

• History could happen this weekend as the NCAA leader in stolen bases, Jeff Sabater, is one stolen base away from breaking Millersville's single-season school record, which was set by Ernest McCoy in 1987. Sabater has swiped 40 bases in 34 games, has six more steals than any other player in Division II and 18 more than any other player in the PSAC. Sabater also leads the PSAC in hits and ranks fourth in batting average (.421). He's had a hit in 18 of the last 20 games. Sabater is already one of nine players in PSAC history to steal 40 bases in a season. The record of 52 was set by Seton Hill's Jack Whalen in 2023. Sabater has 17 regular season games remaining. As a team, Millersville has stolen at least one base in all but five games. The Marauders' 119 steals rank sixth in Division II.
• Millersville won't just beat teams with speed. The Marauders have hit 10 home runs in the last two series and lead the PSAC with 32. Seven different Marauders have hit three or more home runs.
• Among that group is Mark McNelly, who ranks in the PSAC's top five in average (.411), slugging percentage (.678), on-base percentage (.518), OPS (1.196), runs (36), RBIs (33) and stolen bases. He is the only player in the conference that can make that claim. He and teammate Sam Morris are the only PSAC players with at least 15 steals and 30 RBIs. 
• After missing more than a month, Cole Houser returned to the lineup and March 22 and has hit .486 with a team-high seven doubles and 10 RBIs in those 11 games. Keegan Soltis has also been swinging a hot bat, hitting .455 with a team-best 1.352 OPS in the 16 PSAC East games. 
• Millersville is a combined 27-0 in games that Carson Kulina, Alex Mykut and Conor Cook pitch. The trio is 21-0 in decisions, and all three pitchers boast an ERA of 2.40 or lower making Millersville the only team in the PSAC with three pitchers ranked in the top 10 of that category. Mykut and Kulina also ranked 1-2 in strikeouts. They hold three of the top four spots in wins. As a team, Millersville ranks fifth nationally in ERA, and Mykut ranks third after holding the top spot last week. Mykut sits at 0.97. Gage Gillott of Slippery Rock is No. 1 in DII at 0.82. He's thrown 12 fewer innings than Mykut. Mykut has yet to allow more than one run in any of his starts. While he is still 29 2/3 innings from cracking Millersville's career top 10, Mykut already ranks sixth in career strikeouts, sitting 14 behind Brandon Miller (2014-16). 
• Zack Tukis made his first career start last Sunday against Mercy. Entering the day, Tukis had 13 career appearances spanning 9 2/3 innings. He worked four scoreless innings, allowing just one single. That was the only hit Tukis has allowed in 10 1/3 innings this season. 
   

SCOUTING THE WARRIORS

• East Stroudsburg has not lost since a 5-2 loss at Chowan on Feb. 18. The Warriors have found ways to win close games, winning nine in a row decided by two runs or fewer.
• East Stroudsburg and Millersville are two of three teams in the PSAC with two players ranked in the top-10 in batting average. Shanley Wall is eighth (.394) and Parker Frey is ninth (.387). Wall is the PSAC leader in doubles with 12--one ahead of Millersville's Matthew Williams.
• ESU is solid defensively, fielding at .973 (fourth in the PSAC, just behind Millersville's .975). Jeremy Piatkiewicz ranks first in the conference with 84 assists. Frey and Piatkiewicz have been a part of the second-most double plays in the PSAC.
• Brent Francisco is a former All-Atlantic Region starting pitcher, and is 7-0 in his first eight starts, averaging six innings per outing with three complete games. He is one of the few pitchers who could compete with Millersville's Mykut for the PSAC East Pitcher of the Year award. Francisco's 1.88 ERA is third in the PSAC, and he ranks second in batting average against at .155. Francisco's command is unmatched. He has walked just four batters while striking out 51. Among Division II pitchers with at least 40 innings, Francisco is first in strikeout-to-walk ratio. He's pitched back-to-back shutouts, giving up just two hits in his last two starts covering 12 innings. Millersville has had success against Francisco, beating him in game two of the 2023 series, knocking him out of the 2022 regional meeting with five runs in 2 1/3 innings, scoring four runs in five innings in a 2022 regular season win, and five runs in four innings in a 2021 regular season win.
• If ESU leads late, the ball goes to Caden Parker, who has seven saves. Parker has struck out 18 in 13 1/3 innings.

SERIES HISTORY

• Millersville had won eight straight season series over East Stroudsburg before the Warriors won two of three in 2023. Millersville took three of four games each season from 2014-2021 and then won two of three in 2022. Both Jon Shehan and John Kochmansky took over their programs in 2008, and as good as both teams have been over the last 15-plus years, they've played just six postseason games with Millersville holding a 4-2 edge. The teams have evenly split the last 10 meetings with ESU winning three of the last four. East Stroudsburg has had some recent success at Cooper Park, winning three of the last six games played at Millersville. 
• Last season, Chase Nowak out-dueled Carson Kulina in the opener. Tim Haverstick's fourth-inning single plated two runs, and that was all of the scoring. It was Kulina's first loss of the season as he allowed two runs on seven hits in six innings. Ben Wilchacky and Evan Rishell combined to shut out ESU in game two as the Marauders scored five runs off Brent Francisco in four innings. ESU won game three 9-1, piling up 17 hits off of six Marauder pitchers. Alex Mykut lasted 3 1/3, giving up three earned on eight hits.