Baseball | 5/24/2021 6:27:00 AM
The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College baseball team will navigate a stacked Regional beginning on Thursday night as the No. 16 Cardinals head to Marietta, Ohio to take on No. 17 North Carolina Wesleyan in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Championship at Marietta College. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Don and Sue Schaly Field at Pioneer Park.
The entire regional can be watched from anywhere in the world by clicking the links below:
LIVE STATS |
LIVE VIDEO |
TWITTER UPDATES |
MARIETTA REGIONAL BRACKET |
REGIONAL WEBSITE
TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets are available for those who wish to make the trip. Tickets for Thursday's games will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning and can be purchased by
CLICKING HERE. Tickets for all other days will go on sale at 6 a.m. the morning of each morning. Single-game ticket prices will be $8 for adults and $5 for senior citizens and students. No All-Tournament tickets will be sold and the Stadium will be cleared after each game.
EXPERIENCE COUNTS: When it comes to postseason play, experience can often make a difference. Entering the regional, Fisher will be making its sixth overall appearance in the NCAA Championship and first since 2017 while the Battling Bishops qualified for the national tournament for the first time since 2009. Both teams have played their way to the Division III World Series with Fisher advancing in 2016. North Carolina Wesleyan has two national championships in its history after winning it all in 1989 and again 10 years later in 1999.
NATIONAL RECOGNITION: It took Fisher 12 weeks to appear in the D3baseball.com national poll as it made its debut at No. 23 last week. Since, Fisher has climbed seven spots to hold down the No. 16 overall ranking leading into NCAA play on Thursday. The team has also received its fair share of attention after earning 10 National Player of the Week accolades during the regular season.
Adam Zebrowski was honored by D3baseball.com and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America four times while
RJ Kuruts,
Anthony Brophy,
James Murphy,
James Ward, Jr. and
Noah Campanelli were each recognized over the course of the last three months.
TOP TO BOTTOM AND INBETWEEN: The Cardinals are an absolute juggernaut at the plate this season. Imagine being a starting pitcher and having to face this offense. Entering regionals this week, head coach
Brandon Potter's squad ranks second among all Division III teams with a .371 batting average, a .484 on-base percentage, a .596 slugging percentage and in runs scored per game at 12.6 on average. The Cardinals are fifth in the country in home runs per game at 1.36 and have hit 49 home runs in 36 games, which is 11th in Division III. The team has 482 base knocks on the season, which is eighth among all D3 teams and has also shown extreme patience at the plate with 238 walks so far this year.
NAVIGATING THE GUANTLET: Of Fisher's typical lineup this season, four players are hitting over or near .400. Campanelli is batting .401 out of the leadoff spot and has clubbed 18 doubles and driven in 27 on the year while All-American shortstop
Justin Graham, who is the program's all-time leader in hits and runs scored, has 64 hits in 154 at-bats (.416) out of the two hole. Worked through those two without any trouble? Now you get deal with
Brian Norsen's .394 average and 52 RBI before you get to the reigning Empire 8 Player of the Year and a potential national player of the year candidate in Zebrowski who leads the country with 68 RBI and is second with 18 home runs to go along with a .517 overall average. Then there's
Luke Duffy who is hitting a career-high .391, Ward, Jr. and his .358 average and Murphy who has turned in a .321 average over his first career 28 games.
SITUATIONAL HITTING: It's not all about power and average. The Cardinals have shown that they're also disciplined at the plate as their 26 sacrifice flies are among the most of any team in the nation this season. Fisher isn't prone to grounding into doubles play this year either as that's happened just 16 times all season.
ADAM ZEBROWSKI: No clever headline needed. This kid is a beast. Through 36 games, Zebrowski might as well have been playing a video game with a .517 average, 71 hits, including 13 doubles and 18 dingers, 68 RBI, 59 runs scored, a .986 slugging percentage and an on-base percentage over .600. The Albany native has already set single-season records at Fisher for the most home runs and RBI and enters the NCAA Championship riding a 29-game hitting streak….29 games. If he goes 2-for-4, his average goes down. Think about that…
1-2-3, YOU'RE OUT: The Cardinals can hit yes, but their pitching has had the opposite effect on other teams as Kuruts and Brophy form a formidable pair atop the pitching rotation. Through 36 games this season, Brophy is unbeaten at 8-0 and boasts a team-leading 1.62 earned run average over 61 innings of work. The North Tonawanda native has tossed two complete games and has 67 strikeouts on the season. The lefty has held opposing hitters to a minuscule .221 batting average. Kuruts (11-1), who was named the Empire 8 Pitcher of the Year earlier this month, has also been dominant on the hill for Fisher as his 11 victories are tied for the most in Division III at the moment. Kuruts can be untouchable at times as he leads the conference and is fourth among all Division III pitchers with 98 strikeouts to his credit. The Forest City, Pa. native has a 3.33 ERA over 67.2 innings and has fanned at least 10 in four of his 12 starts.
Potter also has the luxury of penciling in
Alec Teska as another starting option as the Cato native is 3-1 with a save over 11 appearances. Teska has made seven starts on the year and pitched to a 2.78 earned run average. Over 45.1 innings, the right-hander has allowed just 40 hits and has 46 outs via strikes.
SCOUTING NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN: The Battling Bishops earned one of just six coveted at-large bids after falling to LaGrange in a best-of-three series for the USA South Conference title. Wesleyan is 32-8 overall, which marks the most wins the team has had since it hoisted the Walnut and Bronze back in 1999.
Over 40 games, the Bishops are hitting .301 as a team and have scored nearly nine runs per game. They're slugging .444 overall and have accounted for 82 doubles, 14 triples and 30 home runs with 285 RBI to date. Catcher Brad Pennington leads the way with a .355 batting average on 54 hits, 14 doubles, five home runs and a team-leading 44 RBI. Alec Titmus is hitting .340 over 36 games while Davie Morgan has 52 hits including 18 that have gone for extra bases.
Wesleyan runs frequently on the bases with 79 stolen bags led by Tyson Bass' 15. Titmus has swiped 13 bases in all with Drifton Padgett stealing 12 times over the season.
On the mound, the Bishops will likely turn to Derrick Carter to start on Thursday as the junior is 8-1 with a 3.43 earned run average over 76.0 innings. Kevin Williams has worked through 57.2 innings overall and has a 3.90 earned run average while CJ Dibenedetto is 5-2 with a 3.59 ERA.
As a team, North Carolina Wesleyan has a 4.97 earned run average over 342.1 innings.
REGIONAL LINEUP: Aside from Fisher and Wesleyan, the regional features four other teams including No. 4 Marietta, No. 7 Rowan, the University of Rochester and Penn State Behrend.
In all, 48 teams will compete for a national championship. The field will consist of eight six-team regionals with the winner of each advancing to the Division III World Series, which will begin on June 3 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.