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Millersville

Carly Vaughan

Playoff push continues in season defining twin-bill against Bloomsburg

| By: Wes Champlin, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant

COVERAGE LINKS

Game One: 

Game Two:

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Record: 24-22, 15-14 PSAC

ABOUT THE GAMES

  • The Millersville Marauders host the Bloomsburg Huskies for a doubleheader on the last day of the regular season. The twin-bill will decide the playoff fates of both teams, as the Marauders are hoping to take down the Huskies and book their first trip to the PSAC Playoff Tournament in a few seasons. These teams split the first meeting of the season on April 6 and the Marauders will likely need a sweep to ensure a playoff berth. 

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

  • The Marauders will likely need a sweep over the Huskies to guarantee a spot in the PSAC Playoff Tournament because these teams split the first games of the season series. That would put the Marauders ahead of the Huskies in the standings and force Bloomsburg out of the playoffs. A split may get the job done if they have the same conference record and the tiebreaker advantage beyond head to head record as well.
  • The first set of NCAA/NFCA Division II rankings was released on April 24 and had the Marauders seventh of 10 teams. Even if they do not make the playoffs, if they hold that spot they will make the NCAA Regional Tournament for the first time since 2006. In that season, the Marauders did just that, missing the PSAC playoffs but making the NCAA tournament.
  • Starting pitcher Alex Schaefer will get the ball in game one looking for redemption after losing at Bloomsburg earlier this season. She fell victim to some shaky defense in that outing; she was pulled after 3.1 innings of work and four runs allowed, but just two of them were earned. On Friday, Schaefer threw well, tallying five innings of three-run ball in Millersville's game one victory over Shepherd.
  • The other start could go to either Morgan Crutcher or Nicolina Pezzone, who both threw excellently when these squads met on April 6. Pezzone came in in relief of Schaefer in the aforementioned game one and then proceeded to start the second game. In total, she compiled 5.2 innings of work while allowing just one run. Crutcher didn't allow a single earned run in her four innings of relief in game two against the Huskies and allowed only three baserunners.

SCOUTING THE HUSKIES

  • The Huskies enter after being swept by division-leading East Stroudsburg on April 25. Their offense was completely stymied by the elite arms of the Warriors, totaling just a single run over 14 innings. The offense has been scuffling like that for a couple of weeks now, as the most runs Bloomsburg has put up in a single conference game since April 15 is six against Kutztown on April 20. The opposition has outscored them 22-3 over their last three games as well. 
  • It was the team's starting pitching that carried them to a split over the Marauders on April 6. Callie Sowers dominated Millersville's bats that afternoon, allowing just a single run in a complete game effort.  That's the norm for Sowers, who is second in the PSAC in earned run average (ERA) with a 1.23 over a conference-leading 165.2 innings pitched. The strikeout is her preferred method of disposing of hitters, evidenced by her third-ranked 215 punchouts. Opposing hitters are hitting just .188 when they do make contact, which is tied for second in the PSAC. 
  • Pitching, defense and baserunning are what has won Bloomsburg games this season. The Huskies sport a stellar team ERA of 3.02, good for third in the PSAC. The team's fielding percentage ranks fourth in the PSAC at .966 and its stolen base percentage is sixth in addition to being fourth in stolen bases. 
  • The statistics present the Huskies as a middling offensive team, as they don't have a single regular with an on-base plus slugging mark above .900 (the Marauders have two, for comparison) and have hit only 16 home runs in 49 games this season which ranks sixteenth of 18 teams in the conference. Bloomsburg is in the bottom half of the conference in most team hitting statistics this season. They scored eight runs in the two games between the two teams earlier this season but were aided by four Marauder miscues that led to five of those tallies. One thing on their side is that they have six hitters with an average over .300. 
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