ABOUT THE GAME

• With three series and 12 games remaining on the PSAC East schedule, Millersville is deadlocked with East Stroudsburg in first place, leading West Chester by three games. Millersville has won five consecutive season series against Kutztown, and then West Chester and East Stroudsburg await in the final two series. It's been a steady climb up the national rankings for the Marauders, who reached No. 10 in the ABCA poll this week and stayed steady in the same spot in the NCBWA and diviibaseball.com polls. According to inkblotsports.com, the Marauders have the Atlantic Region's top RPI while playing the fifth-toughest schedule. 
• Millersville is 18-1 at home after playing all four games of the Mansfield series at Cooper Park. After a 9-3 loss in the opening game in which the Marauders left the bases loaded four times, they responded with three consecutive wins, including 41 in Sunday's doubleheader. The 30 runs scored in game three were the fifth-most in PSAC history and set a program record for runs in a PSAC East game. Kutztown enters the weekend just one game out of fourth place, which would get it into the postseason. The Golden Bears will be pitching on short rest after weather pushed their series with Bloomsburg to Monday and Tuesday. They won two games at Bloomsburg on Tuesday after dropping two at home. Kutztown is 5-4 in its last nine games but is 1-13 against teams with an above .500 record. 

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

• Bren Taylor continues to inch closer to the top of the record books. With 220 career runs, he needs three to break Jimmy Losh's (2019-23) Millersville record, and he sits 11 behind West Chester's Nick Spisak (2007-10) for the PSAC record. On Sunday, Taylor also became one of three players in PSAC history with 300 career hits, pulling him to within six of tying Chas McCormick's (2014-17) PSAC hits record. Game two of the Mansfield marked the first time all season that Taylor did not reach base, ending a streak of 40 in a row that dated back to May 6, 2023. He ranks sixth in the PSAC 
• Matthew Williams hit his 10th home run of the season last weekend, making him one of just 10 Marauders to hit double-digit homers in a season. With 27 in his career, Williams is just two homers away from tying the Millersville career record held by Cole Friese. Williams is one homer off the PSAC lead and is third in RBIs with 39. 
• Jimmy Kirk's 11 hits, eight runs, eight RBIs and two homers landed him his first PSAC Athlete of the Week award. Kirk started the season 4 for 25, but since March 10, he's jumped his batting average from .160 to .354. In the last four games alone, Kirk elevated his average from .288 to .354. 
• Millersville ranks second in the PSAC in batting average (.321), first in runs (291), on-base percentage (.449), RBIs (259) and stolen bases (102). The Marauders rank 12th in Division II in steals per game. 
• Over his last five starts, Conor Cook is 4-0 with a 2.61 ERA spanning 27 ? innings. He's struck out 36 batters while walking just eight and surrendering 21 hits. Cook is 23-7 in his career and is 6 1/3 innings from 200, and he already ranks sixth in career strikeouts with 215. 
• As a team, Millersville is sixth in the PSAC in ERA at 4.61, but the staff's 277 strikeouts rank second. 
   

SCOUTING KUTZTOWN

• Kutztown presents Millersville with a similar match-up to the Mansfield series. Like Mansfield, Kutztown is a capable offensive club, hitting .287 (seventh in the PSAC) and ranks in the middle of the pack in OBP and runs scored, but pitching and defense have been problematic. Kutztown's .942 fielding percentage is 15th in the conference, ranking better than only Mansfield. The team's 7.98 ERA is 14th, as is its walks per game. Teams are hitting .323 against Kutztown, a mark that is only better than Mansfield. Kutztown's 55 wild pitches are the most in the PSAC, and its staff has hit more batters (49) than all but Shepherd. All four pitchers with seven or more starts have an ERA of 6.08 or higher. 
• Bo Barthol ranks among the PSAC's best hitters, boasting a .392 batting average and 15 doubles. Nick Varda's .478 OBP is tops on the team. Kutztown doesn't hit many home runs, totaling 11 in 35 games, ranking it 231st out of 247 Division II teams.  

SERIES HISTORY

• Since a series split in 2018, the rivalry has been all Millersville. The Marauders have won 18 of the last 19 meetings. Kutztown's 5-4 home win in game two of the 2024 series snapped Millersville's 16-game winning streak in the series. Since the April 24, 2010 doubleheader at Millersville, Kutztown has scored more than four runs just six times in 52 games. Kutztown's last win at Cooper Park was a 3-2 decision on a seventh-inning single by Bo Rottet on March 31, 2018. Kutztown has never taken a regular-season series from a Jon Shehan-coached team. Kutztown's last regular-season series win was in 2007. The Marauders and Golden Bears played seven times in 2014 with Millersville winning four games. The teams split the regular-season series. Kutztown won the PSAC title game 1-0, but Millersville won twice against the Golden Bears in the Atlantic Regional. 
• Last season, Millersville needed a sacrifice fly from Mark McNelly in the top of the seventh to win 4-3 on the road before KU took game two. Millersville won the two games at Cooper Park by scores of 6-0 and 8-1. Alex Mykut nearly pitched a no-hitter in game three, going 6 2/3 innings before Jason Wolff hit a double to right field just beyond the reach of Sam Morris. Conor Cook pitched six innings in 84 pitches, allowing just five hits and a walk while striking out six. Cook missed his start against Kutztown in 2022, but in 2021, he set a career high with 12 strikeouts in a complete-game effort in which he allowed just two runs on three hits.