Baseball keeps perfect home record

By Megan McKay Staff Writer

Mercyhurst Baseball’s season has officially started, and the Lakers are currently 6-4 and have a 3-0 home record.

The Lakers were off to a rocky start in February when they participated in the Glenville State Tournament in West Virginia.

Despite their efforts they went 0-4 but were able to turn things around, leaving West Virginia by beating Salem University in a three game away series.

Mercyhurst has recently proved their dominance over Salem after a double header last Thursday.

The Lakers went to town on the Tigers in the first game, winning by a score of 13-0 and then securing another one shortly after 3-2.

Laker Lucas Folmer was the star of the show in the second inning of the first game when he hit his first home run of the season grabbing three runs.

The senior infielder also had an impressive 6 RBI’s in the game.

Mercyhurst kept tallying on in the third inning when they earned six runs to increase their lead to 9-0.

Folmer was once again in on the action when he hit his second home run that brought in another three runs.

In the fifth inning the Lakers solidified the final score with four more runs.

The second game of the double header went a little differently as Tigers put up a close fight.

In the fourth inning, Eric Chorba led off with a home run for his second of the season. Shortly after Chris Juchno hit a home run of his own to give the Lakers a 2-0 lead, which set them up to secure a victory.

Unfortunately, after riding a five-game win streak the Lakers game on Friday against Grand Valley State University was canceled due to weather in Erie.

Sophomore catcher Landon DiBeradin described his thoughts on the team’s start thus far.

“We did not have the start we pictured after that first weekend, but we all knew what we were capable of and just focused on getting back in the right direction,” DiBeradin said.

After the team’s first away trip the importance of getting back in their groove and gain confidence.

DiBeradin also mentioned the significance of the makeup in their team this year.

“It is a little different than last year for us, with a majority of the position guys being new starters or first-year students,” he said. “We just focus on having each other’s back and stepping up when our teammates need us. Picking each other up and having that common goal of doing whatever needs to be done to win games is key for us this year.”

DiBeradin spends half the games behind the plate, and he attributed the team’s recent success to their pitching staff that is surrounded by a lot of talent.

DiBeradin recorded two runs recently in the series against Salem as well as a career high 8 putouts.

The team’s focus for the remainder of the season is to not just live up to the past success and expectations of Mercyhurst, but also aim in making the regional and putting themselves in the position to go to the College World Series.