3/8/22
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – The Lackawanna College Baseball team continues its Spring Break 2022 tour with a stop at the Cal Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, SC, where they'll take on Mid Michigan CC and Bay College in a pair of games on Tuesday, March 8^th.
 
The first game, against Mid Michigan, is set for a 10:00am ET start, while the match-up with Bay College will be later in the day, at 6:00pm ET. There will be a video livestream available for both games via Playsight. It is a subscription-based service, and there is a monetary cost to access live and on-demand video streams. You can find that site, along with info on how to join and watch, via this link HERE.
 
 
About The Falcons
The Falcons (0-4) are coming off a pair of doubleheader losses to Florence-Darlington Tech and Patrick & Henry CC this past weekend. Lackawanna College was outscored by a combined 33-8 in the four games, hitting just .194 as a team, striking out 43 times as a club, while allowing their opponents to hit a combined .337, with nine extra base hits and an .895 OPS.
 
Lackawanna's defense had some bright spots, but the pitching staff got tagged with a combined 10.08 ERA through the first four games, and the defense had eight errors through the first four games.
 
Christian Rush has gotten off to a fast start, leading the Falcons with a .375 batting average, and an impressive 1.132 OPS. Rush had a three-run homer, and has four RBIs already on the year, along with a stolen base and a highlight reel catch in centerfield over the weekend.
 
Quinn Hanafin is second on the team with a .364 batting average, and leads the team with four hits so far this year. Hanafin has a pair of doubles on the year, and has a .909 OPS. Hanafin has recorded a hit in each of his first four games this year.
 
Cody Fleischer is third on the team at .300, and he has one of the three homeruns for the Falcons this year. Fleischer has a .900 OPS on the year, and has two stolen bases already this year.
 
David Curreri has a .500 batting average in the two games he's seen action, going 3-for-6 in his plate appearances. He went 2-for-3 against Patrick & Henry in their first match-up on Saturday.
 
Kyle Scott, recovering from injury, pitched just three innings over the weekend, but was stellar in his limited action, striking out six batters and giving up just two hits in his lone appearance against Florence-Darlington.
 
Samuel Daniels pitched well in relief in the first game of the year, going 1.2 innings, not allowing a hit, and striking out a pair of batters.
 
Jason Carpenter went 3.1 innings in his start against Florence-Darlington on Saturday, giving up five runs on three hits, but only two earned runs, while striking out two batters.  
 
Coach Mike McCarry enters his fourth season at the helm for Lackawanna College. McCarry has helped elevate the Falcon program in his short time, guiding Lackawanna to a pair of NJCAA World Series appearances in his first three seasons, one of which was shortened and ultimately cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before his time at Lackawanna, McCarry was the pitching coach at Stephen F. Austin and LaSalle Universities. As a pitching coach with both schools, he had multiple pitchers sign professional contracts, and, especially in his time at LaSalle, McCarry brought four NJCAA All-Americans to be a part of the Explorer program. Before that, McCarry spent his time in baseball in the Philadelphia Suburbs in Bucks County with Central Bucks West and the Colts Collegiate Summer Team. McCarry is a Keystone College graduate, where he played baseball for Jamie Shevchik and the vaunted Giants program. McCarry is 78-34 in his career at Lackawanna College.   
 
About Mid Michigan CC
The first opponent of the day will be the Mid Michigan CC Lakers. Mid Michigan went 3-1 over the weekend, and will be fresh off three games against Penn State DuBois, Manhattanville JV, and Northampton from Monday, when they take on the Falcons.  
 
The Lakers program was officially added as a varsity sport in 2018, with their first official season coming in 2019, so this is only the fourth season for the program.
 
Mid Michigan returns Andrew Charters this season. Charters was second on the Lakers last year with 20 hits, walking a team-high ten times last year, and hitting a team-high five doubles. A shortstop, Charters helped turn six double-plays last year.
 
The Lakers also return their power threat, Cam Steeves. Steeves led the Lakers in homeruns (3), extra base hits (6), and RBIs (14). Steeves also had a team-high 34 strikeouts last year.
 
Jimmy Pierce returns in the rotation for the Lakers, having pitched a team-high 31.2 innings last year. He struck out 39 batters last season, and had an ERA of 5.40. Trevor Crawford also comes back, having pitched 17.2 innings last year, striking out 14 batters last year.
 
The head coach for Mid Michigan is Scott Pickens, now in his 4^th year at the helm. Pickens is a fixture in baseball circles in Michigan, having been a standout catcher at Central Michigan in the early 2000's, before transitioning to a professional career in the Frontier League for a few seasons. He spent eight seasons as a bullpen catcher in the Detroit Tigers organization, including being with the team for both of their World Series appearances in 2006 and 2012. Pickens has been coaching youth baseball in Michigan ever since.      
 
About Bay College
The Bay College Norse start the week at 1-3, and will be fresh off a match-up with Penn State New Kensington on Monday before taking on the Falcons.
 
The Norse are hitting .314 as a team on the year, and have scored at least five runs in all four of their games this year. They've given up 39 runs in four games, 31 of those runs earned, and opponents have hit .407 against the Norse pitching.
 
Hector Araguayan is one of three Norse players with a .462 batting average. Hector leads the team in RBIs (6) and has a .563 OBP. He's got a pair of doubles on the year. Araguayan had a 2-for-4 outing with a pair of doubles and two RBIs against Rochester CTC, and also went 2-for-4 with three RBIs in the lone win of the year for the Norse against Penn State Hazleton.
 
Dalton Graham is also batting .462 on the year, with a .692 slugging, good for second on the team. Graham has a team-high three extra base hits entering the week, all doubles, and has driven in two RBIs so far this year. He's recorded a hit in every game this year, and was 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and a walk in the loss to Penn State New Kensington on Sunday.
 
Xavier Whittle is the third Norse player hitting .462, and he also leads the team in slugging (.769). Whittle has one of the two homeruns for the Norse this year, and is second on the team with four RBIs. Whittle's ten total bases are a team-high. He was 2-for-3 with a homerun, a double, and all four of his RBIs in the first game of the year, a loss to Manhattanville JV. He was 0-for-4 against Penn State New Kensington in his last game before this week.
 
Sam Williams is hitting .400 so far this year for the Norse. He's boasting a .455 OBP, and is fourth on the team with four hits this year. His best game was a 2-for-4 outing against Rochester CTC. He did not appear against Penn State New Kensington on Sunday.  
 
Austin Burnside earned the lone win this year for Bay College, pitching five innings and striking out seven batters, while allowing two hits and four runs, in a 9-6 win over Penn State Hazleton.
 
Graham has pitched four innings this year, starting Sunday's match-up against PSU New Kensington. Graham allowed eight earned runs, nine total, and eight hits in the loss to the Nittany Lions. Nick Goebert pitched three innings in a start against Rochester CTC on Sunday. He didn't record a result, but he struck out six batters in his three innings, while also allowing five runs, all earned, on six hits. As a team, the Norse have surrendered 28 walks this year.  
 
The head coach for the Norse is Mike Pankow, who has helmed the program since it started in 2018. Pankow, who is also the Assistant AD and Sports Information & Facilities Manager, previously coached at University of Maine at Presque Isle, where he served as the head baseball coach and SID. In his four years at UMPI, he coached eleven academic All-Americans, and 14 all-conference selections. Pankow, a northern Wisconsin native, played baseball and basketball at Northland College, way up on the northern tip of Wisconsin, just off of Lake Superior. Pankow has been coaching in baseball, basketball, and stayed involved in athletics at both the college and high school levels for the past 19 years. Pankow went 10-22-1 in the first year of Norse baseball in 2019.
 
Game Information
Lackawanna College will open with Mid Michigan at 10:00am ET on Tuesday, March 8^th, from the Cal Ripken Experience Baseball Complex in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The second game against Bay College will happen at 6:00pm ET that same day.
 
There will be a video livestream available for both games via Playsight. It is a subscription-based service, and there is a monetary cost to access live and on-demand video streams. You can find that site, along with info on how to join and watch, via this link HERE. You can also follow the Lackawanna College Baseball Twitter account for live updates HERE.