2023 NCAA Baseball Regionals Preview

Penn State Harrisburg Baseball Field

777 West Harrisburg Pike
Middletown, Pa. 17057

Friday, May 19
Game 1 - 12 p.m.

Saturday, May 20
Game 2 - 10 a.m.
Game 3 - 45 minutes after Game 2 ends

Sunday, May 21
Game 4 (if necessary) - 10 a.m.
Game 5 (if necessary) - 45 minutes after Game 4 ends

• Weekend passes for the Harrisburg Regional will be sold on-site for $10 each for access to all five games.
• All ticket sales are CASH ONLY.

• Salisbury enters its 23rd consecutive NCAA Tournament (28th overall) with a 30-5 record, reaching the 30-win plateau for the 21st time in the last 23 completed seasons.
• The Sea Gulls defeated Mary Washington, 22-4, in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference (C2C) Tournament championship to win its third consecutive conference title. All three C2C baseball schools (Salisbury, Christopher Newport, Mary Washington) earned Pool B or C at-large bids into the NCAA field of 60.
• SU has played 17 of its 35 games against teams that made the NCAA Tournament field, going 13-4 with victories over Mary Washington (3x), TCNJ (3x), Cortland (2x), St. John Fisher (2x), CNU (1x), Randolph-Macon (1x) and Rowan (1x).
• Salisbury has made it to seven NCAA Division III Baseball Championships (2001, ‘11, ’14, ‘15, ’21, '22) and appeared in two straight finals, winning its first national championship in 2021.

• Salisbury saw multiple program records fall during the 2023 season. Pitcher Corey Burton became the Sea Gulls' all-time leader in pitching appearances (74), while outfielder Cameron Hyder now holds the SU records for career games (181) and hits (262).
• Three Sea Gulls are currently engaged in a home run chase, with Jacob Ference (12), Danny Sheeler (10) and Kavi Caster (9) all in hot pursuit of the SU single-season record of 13, set by Dave Westervelt in 1998. Salisbury has hit 55 home runs as a team this season, one shy of the program standard set by the 2009 Sea Gulls.
• Several other records could fall before the end of the season, with pitcher Jimmy Adkins approaching the career innings mark and shortstop Stephen Rice just four doubles from matching the program standard. Hyder also stands one run shy of matching the SU record of 199 set by Justin Meekins '21.

• Salisbury leads NCAA Division III in scoring offense, averaging 11.2 runs per game, and also turns a national-best 1.06 double plays per game.
• The Sea Gulls rank top-10 nationally in eight other categories, including all three slash lines (.343/.448/.570), doubles per game (2.69), home runs (55), home runs per game (1.57), sacrifice bunts (50), HBPs (91) and fielding percentage (.978).
• Scott Cameron gets hit by the pitch more often than anyone in the nation, topping Division III with 0.63 HBPs per game and ranking sixth with 22 total HBPs.
• Luke Weddell has established himself as the nation's best sacrifice bunt artist, leading Division III in sac bunts per game (0.52) and ranking second in total sac bunts (15).
• Jimmy Adkins owns the sixth-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (9.00) and has allowed the 10th-fewest walks allowed per nine innings (0.99).
• Jacob Ference averages a home run every 7.92 at-bats, with his 0.43 homers per game slotting eighth nationally. Ference also ranks top-20 in slugging percentage (.811).
• Danny Sheeler ranks top-45 in batting average (.423), on-base percentage (.555) and slugging percentage (.790).
• Cameron Hyder maintains his reputation as one of the toughest batters to strike out in Division III. He fans once every 25.2 at-bats, good for 14th in the nation, after finishing the 2022 season ranking second nationally (43.2).

• Penn State Harrisburg has qualified for its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament and fifth overall after finishing the regular season 33-10 and winning the United East Tournament championship.
• The Lions ran roughshod over the United East, going 19-2 in league play to win the regular season title by 4.5 games. PSH bested Lancaster Bible (20-2), Penn Stat Abington (9-7) and Penn College (27-7) to win their third straight conference tournament.
• Seven Lions were named to the All-United East First Team: infielders Maddux Ryan and Carlos Irizarry; outfielders Kevin Lehner and Dallas Hite; designated hitter Matt Parks; and pitchers Fisher Druck and Joshua Berzonski. Irizarry was also named United East Rookie of the Year.

• Penn State Harrisburg boasts the second-best scoring offense in Division III, averaging 11.1 runs per game and trailing only Salisbury (11.2) at the top of the charts.
• The Lions also rank top-10 nationally in total walks (257), batting average (.365), on-base percentage (.462), slugging percentage (.566), total runs (476), total hits (560), home runs (59), home runs per game (1.37) and sacrifice flies (38).
• Three PSH regulars rank in the national top 120 in batting average: Maddux Ryan (.463), Kevin Lehner (.453) and Carlos Irizzary (.410). Ryan and Lehner also slot in the top 25 in on-base percentage.
• Brendan Henn has scored the 10th-most runs in the nation (63), with Matt Parks (60) and Dallas Hite (57) ranking 18th and 26th, respectively.

• Salisbury leads the all-time series 16-5, but Penn State Harrisburg has won four of the last six matchups dating back to May 2019.
• The Sea Gulls and Lions met once during the regular season in Middletown on April 23, with home side PSH winning 8-2.
• The teams split a pair of games in Salisbury 2022, with the Lions taking a 6-4 victory on March 10 and the Sea Gulls rebounding to win 10-8 the next day.