5/25/23
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – This upcoming Saturday, May 27^th, the Lackawanna College baseball squad will make its fifth appearance in program history in the NJCAA DII Baseball World Series in Enid, Oklahoma. The Falcons have clinched three appearances in their last five seasons, all under head coach Mike McCarry, and the program's five total appearances have all occurred in the last 12 seasons. Here's a look at the past Falcons teams that have made the DII College World Series, and how they fared on the big stage.
 
2012
After losing three straight to start the season and sitting at 4-5 nine games in, Lackawanna College went on a tear, going 43-5 the rest of the way leading into the program's first ever DII College World Series appearance. The Falcons ran off winning streaks of 13 games, 15 games, and nine games through the course of the season, and won the Region XIX championship with three straight victories, followed by a doubleheader sweep over CCBC Catonsville to clinch the Northeast District championship, the first in program history, sending the Falcons to their first ever World Series.
 
The Falcons were matched up against the Southwest District (Regions 1 and 5) champions, Scottsdale CC out of Arizona. The game against the Artichokes was a back-and-forth contest, with the teams trading leads heading into extras. Scottsdale scored first on a bases-loaded wild pitch, and Lackawanna responded with four runs in the bottom of the fourth, taking advantage of a bases loaded walk, a two-run error, and an RBI double. Scottsdale scored two runs in both the fifth and the sixth inning, taking the lead when it manufactured some offense on a walk, a single, a hit batter, and a sac fly in the sixth. Lackawanna tied the game at five in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single to eventually send it to extras, but Scottsdale prevailed in extra innings, getting a runner to second on a throwing error, and then taking advantage of a pair of sac bunts that eventually moved the runner home. Lackawanna couldn't get anything started in the bottom of the tenth, droppings its first World Series game in dramatic fashion, 6-5.
 
In the elimination game early Sunday morning, the Falcons battered Grand Rapids Community College in a 12-4 run-rule victory in seven innings. The Falcons scored eight runs in the first, then added four more in the latter stages to get the game into run-rule territory and end it early. Five Falcons had multi-hit games, and each Lackawanna player in the order either scored or drove in at least a run, as the Falcons got production from up and down the lineup. It was the first win on the national stage for Lackawanna baseball in the program's history.
 
That set up the Falcons for another elimination game, against fellow first-timer Catawba Valley CC. The Red Hawks and the Falcons were locked in a battle through the first four innings, where neither team could scratch a run across. A two-run triple in the fifth gave Catawba the breakthrough, and the Red Hawks added a run in the sixth to make it 3-0 after 5.5 innings. The Falcons got a run back with a sac fly in the bottom of the sixth, and the game remained at 3-1 until Catawba broke it open in the top of the eighth with seven runs, helping them cruise to victory from there. While the loss eliminated the Falcons, it also brought to close a historic season where Lackawanna set school-marks by winning a record 47 games and capturing the program's first ever NJCAA district championship.
 
2013
The Falcons came into the Region XIX tourney at 35-16, but a little uneven, and, after dropping the first game of the tournament to Burlington at 2-1, Lackawanna would need to battle back through the elimination bracket. Well, that's just what the Falcons kept doing, clawing by Mercer 6-5, beating up on Delaware Tech to get to the championship round the next day, and then walking off Burlington twice in a pair of games in the Region XIX championship. Then, after dropping the first game to Cecil in the Northeast District Championship, the Falcons did it again with their backs to the wall, winning a pair of games, including a walk-off in the final game to win 2-1 and send the Falcons back to the DII World Series for the second year in a row.
 
Once there, Lackawanna got matched up with perennial powerhouse LSU Eunice, the defending champions and the #1 ranked team in the field. The Falcons didn't let that reputation scare them, as the Birds took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a two-out double. Later, trailing 2-1, the Falcons scored two runs in the top of the eighth thanks to back-to-back RBI singles, putting the defending champs on the ropes. The Bengals fought back to tied in the bottom of the eighth on a walk, followed by an RBI single. In the bottom of the ninth, LSU Eunice got a baserunner all the way to third on an errant throw from Lackawanna on a bunt attempt. With runners on second and third and nobody out, the Bengals got a single to score the winning run and give the Falcons the 4-3 loss.
 
In the next day's elimination game, the Falcons couldn't get their offense on track against Grand Rapids CC, managing just two hits and committing four errors in the field in a 6-2 loss. Grand Rapids scored three unearned runs, but the Falcons almost rallied in the ninth, bringing the tying run to the plate after a bases-loaded walk scored one run in final frame. Lackawanna wouldn't get any closer, as a two-out strikeout ended the Falcons season and their stay in the World Series. The Falcons finished the year with 41 wins, the second straight year that Lackawanna had 40+ victories in a season.
 
2019
In its first season under head coach Mike McCarry, Lackawanna College found itself at 15-13 at the midway point of the season. Then, the Falcons did what they've done regularly under McCarry, catching fire in the second half of the season by winning 17 of their next 19 games to secure the program's third DII World Series berth, and first in six seasons. The Falcons swept their way through the Region XIX playoffs, then ran into Frederick in the District title series.
 
Lackawanna and Frederick split the first two games, setting up a winner-take-all third game at Frederick. The Falcons fell behind 1-0 after two innings, and were held scoreless through three, but the offense clicked into gear for the Falcons in the fourth with a ten-run inning, using two-run and three-run homers to put a big gap between the Falcons and the Cougars. Frederick rallied with six runs in the sixth to get it to 10-7, but the Falcons scored four more runs in the eighth, highlighted by another homer, to push the lead out to 14-7, before closing things out at 14-8.
 
Playing as the ninth-seed, Lackawanna took on Pasco-Hernando State out of Florida in the opening round of the 2019 DII World Series. As has seemingly become tradition for the Falcons in Oklahoma, it was a back-and-forth, wild affair, where the Bobcats jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, only to see the Falcons score the next seven runs to turn the game around, with a six-run third inning as the highlight. Pasco-Hernando answered in kind, scoring the game's next eight runs over five innings to take the lead back and balloon it out to 11-7. In the top of the ninth, the Falcons made one final push, with an RBI single, followed by a sac fly and a ground-out RBI that cut the deficit to just one. The tying run was 90 feet from the plate with two down, but a fly out to center ended the wild ball game and sent the Falcons into the elimination bracket.
 
The Falcons took on 4^th seeded Kellogg, and the Falcons gave the Bruins all they could handle for nine innings. Lackawanna trailed for most of the game, briefly taking the lead at 4-2 in the top of the fifth on a three-run homer, only to see Kellogg score three in the bottom half to re-establish a one-run advantage. The Falcons tied the game in the sixth, but a pair of Kellogg runs in the seventh gave the Bruins a two-run lead they'd hold into the ninth. With one out and a runner on first, the Falcons hammered a game-tying two run homer to left to tie the game in the top of the ninth inning. The Falcons forced it to extras, but the Bruins would end things in the tenth on a sac fly to right with the bases loaded, ending what had been a fantastic game and a great first year under coach Mike McCarry.
 
2021
Playing in the first-year post-pandemic, Lackawanna College managed to piece together a 39-game schedule, despite multiple Region XIX opponents opting out of the 2021 campaign. Coach McCarry and the Falcons managed to cobble together a 25-14 record heading into the postseason, and the Falcons, as they often do, proceeded to catch fire at the best time.
 
In the Region XIX tournament, Lackawanna bludgeoned its opponents, beating Sussex 11-1 and Del Tech 9-3 on Friday, and then lowering the boom on the Squares in the championship game on Saturday, winning 22-8 behind an avalanche of homeruns. The Falcons hit nine all-together on the weekend, six coming in the championship game, on their way to capturing the Region XIX title, the second in three seasons under coach McCarry, which counts the 2020 year that was cut short because of the pandemic.
 
In the East District tournament, the Falcons had to face Region III champion Monroe CC. Lackawanna overwhelmed Monroe in game one, winning 10-3 in a game that was tight until the fifth inning, when the Falcons scored six runs to expand their slim advantage out to 7-0. Monroe got a pair of runs back in the sixth and seventh, but the Falcons added three more in the bottom frame of the seventh and motored on to victory from there. On day two, the Falcons scored a run in each of the first and second innings to take a 2-0 advantage, which lasted the Falcons into the top of the seventh, where they added four more runs on a grand slam homerun. Monroe scored four runs of its own, including three in a nervy ninth, where the Tribunes scored three runs with two outs before the Falcons managed to strand the bases loaded with a ground out to short to win the game and get themselves back to Oklahoma.
 
Lackawanna entered as the tenth-seed in the tournament, and ran into a very talented Patrick & Henry squad in the first round. The Patriots from the south held the potent Lackawanna offense in check, allowing just three hits and striking the Birds out 13 times in an impressive 7-0 victory. Patrick & Henry went on to make it all the way to the semi-final round for the tournament.
 
The Falcons had to contend with sixth-seeded Kirkwood in the elimination game, and the North Plains District champions drew 12 walks and took advantage of five Falcons errors to take an 8-3 victory. Lackawanna fell behind 6-0, but managed to claw back a few runs thanks to an error, a ground out, and an RBI single that made it 6-3 after six innings, but Lackawanna couldn't get much more going on offense, and Kirkwood hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to solidify their advantage and put the game out of reach, ending the Falcons' season at 30-16.
 
2023
The 2023 edition of the Falcons have won more games in a season (38) than any of the previous five years under coach McCarry, and the most for the Falcons heading into the World Series since their first appearance back in 2012. Lackawanna had a 12-game winning streak during the regular season, and was 16-2 in Region XIX play, finishing as the top-seed and earning hosting duties for the tournament.
 
The Falcons had a pair of close wins over Morris (4-2) and Del Tech (6-4) to get to the championship round, where they buried the Squares from Del Tech in a 15-2 championship game victory. The next weekend, the Falcons, hosting the East District championship, did more of the same, coming back to defeat UConn Avery Point and Delaware Tech in successive games to get to the title round, and then defeating SUNY Sullivan CC in a tight championship contest, 4-2, to secure their fifth-ever NJCAA DII Baseball World Series appearance, and third in the last five years with coach Mike McCarry at the helm.
 
Lackawanna enters this year's tournament as the eighth-seed, and the Falcons are set to face the ninth-seeded Glendale CC Gauchos, the champions out of Region I and the West District. A win and Lackawanna would have a date with top-seed Heartland CC, the Central District and Region XXIV champions out of Illinois. The Falcons will face off against the Gauchos on Saturday, May 27^th, at 5:00pm ET from David Allen Memorial Ballpark in Enid, Oklahoma. There will be a pay-per-view video livestream available via the NJCAA Network HERE.