Series between Marauders and Huskies gets early start

4/2/2025 10:48:00 AM | Baseball

By: Ethan Hulsey, Director of Athletic Communications

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ABOUT THE GAME

With rain in the forecast, Millersville and Bloomsburg begin their four-game PSAC East series at Cooper Park on Thursday at 12 p.m. The Marauders have 21 wins in the first 25 games for the second time in the last three seasons and are ranked sixth in the Perfect Game Division II poll, No. 16 in the ABCA poll and No. 10 by diviibaseball.com. This week's rankings are their highest of the season in every poll.
Millersville leads the PSAC in runs scored (221) and ranks second in run differential, having outscored opponents by 110 runs. The Marauders have been particularly dominant at home, boasting a 13-0 record with a plus-77 run differential (5.9 per game).

BSB: No doubter. pic.twitter.com/rie6KAIEQX
— Millersville Marauders (@VilleMarauders) March 29, 2025

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

Connor Blantz is quickly building his candidacy for PSAC East Pitcher of the Year. Blantz won this week's PSAC East and NCBWA Atlantic Region Pitcher of the Week awards. He is 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA. His .178 batting average and 52 strikeouts both rank second in the PSAC, and he's issued just six walks in 35 innings. Blantz's 13.37 strikeouts per nine ranks ninth in Division II, and his 8.67 strikeout/walk ratio ranks eighth nationally. He's struck out at least eight hitters in five consecutive starts.
Millersville's starters have been outstanding at pounding the strike zone. In addition to Blantz, Garet Blankenbiller has walked just six hitters compared to 30 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings. Over his last four starts, Conor Cook has walked six while striking out 27 over 23 2/3 innings.
Jeff Sabater is the PSAC leader in stolen bases with 23. He is 16th in Division II in total steals and 10th in steals per game. He already ranks fifth in Millersville history with 80 career steals despite playing in just 79 games. Every other player ahead of him in the rankings played at least 125 games. Sabater is tied for second in the PSAC in runs scored with 32.
After sitting out the entire 2024 season, Bren Taylor seems to be finding his swing at the plate. He's had a hit in eight of the last nine games, increasing his average to .398, which ranks seventh in the PSAC. Last weekend, Taylor went 6 for 11 with five runs scored, and he now trails Chas McCormick ‘17 for the PSAC career record by just 16 hits. Taylor is fifth in career runs, one behind Kutztown’s Shayne Houck (2009-12) and 15 behind West Chester's Nick Spisak (2007-10) for first. Taylor needs just seven runs to set the all-time Millersville record, held by Jimmy Losh (2019-23).
Sam Morris' .393 average sits just behind Taylor in the PSAC rankings. Morris has 11 multi-hit games this season. Since the start of his sophomore season, Morris has hit .354 with a .421 on-base percentage (127 games). Morris recently stole his 10th base of the season, giving him three consecutive seasons with double-digit steals. Morris is hitting .488 with a .744 slugging percentage at home this season.
Millersville ranks second in the PSAC with a .441 OBP. The Marauders' 5.76 walks per game lead the conference. While no Marauder ranks in the PSAC's top 10 in OBP, seven hitters with 16 or more starts boast an OBP of .433 or higher. Sabater's .486 mark leads the group. Sabater, Sammy Laux, Keegan Soltis, Donis Rodriguez and Amani Jones have all totaled more walks than strikeouts.

SCOUTING BLOOMSBURG

The Huskies have lost six consecutive PSAC East games and are coming off a 0-4 weekend against East Stroudsburg in which they were outscored 35-18. They were shut out in both ends of the March 28 doubleheader at ESU. Bloomsburg is 4-12 on the road with seven consecutive road losses. The last road win was Feb. 28 against Seton Hill. Bloomsburg's 8.68 team ERA ranks second-to-last in the PSAC. The staff has walked 17 more hitters than any other team in the conference while averaging the third fewest strikeouts per game (5.8). At the plate, the Huskies have hit a PSAC-leading 28 home runs and rank third in walks drawn but rank 13th in doubles and last in triples.
Drew Balestrini and Corey Daniels rank third and fourth in the PSAC in on-base percentage. Brady Ebbert's 21 walks are third in the PSAC, and Daniels is tied for fourth with 19. Four Huskies have hit four home runs and 11 hitters have hit at least one. On the mound, Daniel Koppisch is the only pitcher to make more than five starts. He's totaled 23 2/3 innings and a 6.85 ERA in seven starts.

SERIES HISTORY

Bloomsburg won a three-game series at Cooper Park in 2021 on its way to winning the PSAC Tournament and then took game one of the 2022 regular season series. But since then, Millersville has won nine consecutive games, out-scoring the Huskies 85-19. Millersville scored 33 runs and limited Bloomsburg to six in last season's four-game series and swept the 2023 series by a margin of 20-3. Bloomsburg has not scored more than three runs against Millersville since April 30, 2022, and that was a 24-6 Millersville victory. In last season's series, Millersville went 18 for 18 in stolen bases while Bloomsburg did not steal a single base. Amani Jones hit .556 with a .692 OBP in the series. Matthew Williams hit a home run and drove in five runs. Conor Cook allowed one run on four hits and one walk with four strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings in his start. Cook is 2-1 in four career starts against Bloomsburg. As a freshman in 2021, he pitched a complete-game, one-hitter with nine strikeouts in the regular season. He took a no-decision in Millersville's PSAC Tournament game, pitching four innings.
Millersville is 53-15 against Bloomsburg at Cooper Park, holding the Huskies to two runs or fewer in 19 of those games, including five of the last seven. Millersville's current nine-game winning streak is the longest by either team since the Marauders won 16 in a row from 2014-2018.