The Misericordia University baseball team will open the NCAA Division III Championships against Ithaca in Farmingdale, NY, Wednesday at 4:30.

The Cougars, 36-8, are seeded fourth in the six-team field while Ithaca is 27-8-1 and seeded third.

A year ago, the Cougars were two wins away from advancing to the D-III World Series.

MU is led by junior centerfielder Kenny Durling, a first-team All-Freedom selection who is hitting .404 with 65 hits, eight homers and a school-record 52 RBI.

Senior rightfielder Jeff Slanovec leads the team in batting at .421 and adds seven homers and 32 RBI.

Junior third baseman Andrew Tressa is hitting .301 leads the team with 45 runs scored from the lead-off spot in the batting order.

Senior second baseman Bubba Jasinski is hitting .308 while junior catcher Chris Tuttle is hitting .304.

Junior Evan Robaczewski, a first-team All-Freedom selection, leads the pitching staff at 10-1 with a 3.82 earned run average.  Junior Matt Karabin was also named first-team All-Freedom and is 7-1 with a team-low 1.52 ERA.

Senior Pat Clark is 5-2 while sophomore Gabe Noyalis is 2-1 with five saves and a 2.37 ERA.

Corey Lee is 4-0 out of the bullpen with three saves and a 1.00 ERA.  Pete Doggett is 2-0 in five starts and Ron Guido is 3-3.