ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT

• Millersville and IUP square off in the first round of the PSAC Tournament for the second consecutive season. In 2023, the upstart Crimson Hawks shocked the top-seeded and defending champion Marauders, 8-1. Millersville, however, went on to win the NCAA Atlantic Regional two weeks later. IUP parlayed that strong finish into a 31-13 record and a regional ranking. Millersville was ranked No. 1 in last week's official Atlantic Region rankings but closed with its first four-game regular-season losing streak since 2012. IUP was on the bubble at No. 7 and can strengthen its NCAA case with a win over the Marauders. 
• Millersville is making its 13th consecutive trip to the PSAC Tournament. Millersville has reached the championship game five times since 2014 and has won at least two games in 10 of their 13 tournament appearances under Shehan. Millersville won eight-consecutive first-round games before last season, and 2023. Millersville has scored at least eight runs in six of the last seven first-round games. 
• The tournament features a single-elimination first round. The four advancing teams then begin a true double-elimination tournament. The winner between Millersville and IUP advance to play Thursday against the winner of the East Stroudsburg/Slippery Rock match-up at 10 a.m. 
• Three of the last four tournament champs have come from the PSAC East, and Seton Hill is the only PSAC West team to win a title since Mercyhurst's lone championship in 2011. The field expanded to eight teams in 2010, and Jon Shehan's Marauders have won the tournament twice (2015, 2022). IUP's last PSAC title came in 1990. 
• The PSAC Tournament is a bear to win. Over the last 24 tournaments, only six teams have entered as the No. 1 seed from either the East or West and went on to win. Millersville's 2022 and 2015 teams and Seton Hill's 2023 squad are the only No. 1 seeds to win the tournament in the last 11 years.

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

• Millersville has won at least 30 games in 10 consecutive seasons and has the longest active streak of consecutive postseason appearances in the PSAC East. Only PSAC West member Mercyhurst has a longer active streak (14). Millersville's run of consecutive PSAC East titles stopped at four, but the division was especially strong this season with four teams (including the top three) ranked in the Atlantic Region's top eight. It is the first time in PSAC history that three teams in the same division won at least 37 regular season games. 
• Millersville hit a rough patch over the final four series, going 8-8 to close the regular season. The Marauders scored more than five runs just three times and scored fewer than five runs 10 times in that stretch. Still, the Marauders rank third in the PSAC in batting average (.313), third in home runs (40), third in on-base percentage (.411) and first in stolen bases (159). Millersville has already smashed the program's single season record for steals, which was set at 136 over 60 games in 2016. Millersville ranks eighth in Division II in steals, and center fielder Jeff Sabater is the NCAA's all-division leader with a PSAC-record 54. He has eight more steals than any other player in the country. 
• The recent series against West Chester dropped Millersville from No. 1 in the PSAC in ERA down to No. 4, but the Marauders have struck out 429 batters--46 more than any other team in the conference. Alex Mykut (1.86) and Carson Kulina (2.57) make Millersville one of three teams in the PSAC with two pitchers ranked in the top 10 in ERA. Kulina ranks second in the PSAC in strikeouts and Mykut is third. The duo also has also combined for 18 wins--the most by any pitching duo in the PSAC. Kulina is 18-2 in his two seasons with the program. His 84 strikeouts rank eighth in Millersville history, and Mykut's 83 rank ninth. 
• Mark McNelly has been Millersville's most consistent offensive performer, having reached base in 15 consecutive games with at least one run scored in seven of the last eight. McNelly is the only player in the PSAC ranking in the top 10 in both OPS and stolen bases. He is one of just six players in Millersville history to steal 30 bases in a season. 
   

SCOUTING IUP

• IUP is making its first back-to-back PSAC Tournament appearances since 2010-11. Steve Kline, in his third season, has led IUP to at least 25 wins each season after inheriting a club that went 2-35 before his arrival. IUP has its most wins since going 31-24 in 2010. The Crimson Hawks closed the regular season with three straight wins over Mercyhurst to jump into the PSAC West's No. 2 seed. Those wins followed three consecutive losses in which they scored a total of two runs. IUP has scored more than three runs just once in the last six games, but it has also allowed more than two runs just twice in its last eight games. IUP has gone 17-4 since April 7. 
• IUP ranks eighth in the PSAC in average (.284) but ranks fourth in walks and fifth in OBP. Among hitters with at least 100 at-bats, only Brady Yard (.343) and Ricardo Aponte (.333) are hitting over .300. 
• IUP's 5.44 team ERA ranks ninth in the conference, and its .291 batting average against is 12th. There is not a pitcher on the staff who has struck out more batters than innings pitched. Mark Edeburn boasts the staff's best numbers with a 6-1 record, 3.31 ERA and 1.12 WHIP. He's been stellar over his last three starts, allowing just four total runs over 19 1/3 innings. Jake Black has not allowed more than three runs in five consecutive starts.

SERIES HISTORY

• IUP has been a pesky opponent for Millersville during Jon Shehan's tenure at Millersville. While Millersville has won nine of the last 13 meetings and eight of 11 at neutral sites, IUP had a run of nine wins in 11 meetings from 2010-2014, going 6-3 against teams that eventually qualified for NCAA regionals. IUP and Millersville have met in each of the last two seasons with IUP winning both games, totaling 20 runs. IUP and Millersville have met twice in the postseason during Shehan's tenure, and IUP has won both games, each time knocking off a No. 1-seeded Millersville team. In 2011, IUP's upset Millersville 6-5 in Johnstown, Pa. The other postseason meetings between the teams occurred in the 1974 and 1975 championship series, both of which Millersville won. That 1974 championship was Millersville's first. Millersville also beat IUP 5-4 in the first round of the 1998 tournament and went on to win that championship as well.