After posting an outstanding 40-11 record last season, the Mercyhurst baseball team competed in the Atlantic Region Championship for the fifth time in the past seven seasons. But the outcome last season was different.

The Lakers became Atlantic Region Champions for the first time in school history, followed by their first trip to Cary, North Carolina for the NCAA Division II National Championship.

There, Mercyhust went 2-1 defeating Truman State University 3-1 on the first day before falling to University of Tampa, who ended up winning the championship, and then to Cal Poly Pomona.

Mercyhurst received high recognition for their performan on the field from the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Preseason Poll which ranked them third in the nation.

The Lakers gathered 623 points in the poll. The teams ahead of them are the defending champs, Tampa and runnerup Catawba College.

Mercyhurst is among two other PSAC schools, Millersville and Seton Hill, in the poll’s Top 40.

Also, Head Coach Joe Spano earned PSAC West Coach of the Year.