Misericordia University's historic baseball season will continue when the Cougars open the 2018 NCAA D-III College World Series, Friday in Appleton, WI.

Misericordia, the Mid-Atlantic Regional champion, will face Randolph-Macon (35-7-1) in their first game at 2:15 EST at Fox Cities Stadium.  Oswego (30-12) will face Texas-Tyler (35-17) in the other first round game in Pool A.

In Pool B, Concordia-Chicago (38-13) will play Swarthmore (37-9) and Wooster (40-8) will face Texas Lutheran (38-9).

The winners of the double-elimination pool play will meet in a best-of-three series for the national title.

Randolph-Macon (5^th) and Oswego (22^nd) are ranked in the d3baseball.com Top 25.  Pool B features three ranked teams in Wooster (4^th), Texas Lutheran (6^th) and Concordia-Chicago (8^th).

Misericordia beat second-ranked Rowan and number 23 Babson in the regional tournament.

The Cougars are making their first World Series appearance after winning three straight elimination games to win the regional title.

Drake Koch, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Most Outstanding Player, anchors an MU pitching staff that features for starters with seven wins.

Koch and Elliot Forde are both 7-0 while first years Ian McCole and Tom Jacob are 7-1 and 7-2, respectively.  Koch has 68 strikeouts, the fourth-most in a single-season in school history.

Kyle Melahn is 4-2 with a 2.45 earned run average and tied the school single-season record with seven saves.  He worked six innings in his only start of the season to get the win in the regional championship game.

Melahn and Dan Zurowski, who has two saves and a 0.52 ERA, joined Koch on the regional all-tournament team.

First baseman Tyler Holzapfel and second baseman Alec Iurato were also named to the all-tournament team at the regional tournament.

Holzapfel is hitting .333 with a team-high 16 doubles and 47 RBI. 

Iurato missed all but one regular season game and his hitting .357 with 14 RBI in the post-season.

The Cougars lead the county in hit by pitch (113) and are sixth in walks (242).

Santo Guinta (18), Parker Abate (17), Kenny Jarema (14) and Holzapfel (14) are all in the top 10 in school history for HBP in a season.

Parker Abate leads MU in batting at .345 and runs scored (54) and is tied for the team lead with 59 hits.

MAC Freedom Championships MVP Steve Weisensee is hitting .341 and is tied for the team lead with 59 hits and is second on the team with 45 RBI.

Kenny Jarema is second in the nation with 48 walks and leads MU with 58 runs scored.

Randolph-Macon was eliminated in two games from the Old Dominion Athletics Conference Tournament, but rebounded two win four straight games to capture to the NCAA South Regional title.

The Yellow Jackets are making their first D-III World Series appearance.

Colin Selby leads the Yellow Jackets pitching staff at 11-2 with a 2.60 ERA and 12.2 strikeouts per nine innings.

Nick Roth is 10-1 with a 2.96 ERA while Cody Thompson and Christian Cook combined for nine saves.

Cole Migliorini leads the team in batting at .374 and has six homers and 45 RBI.

Joseph Tuzzolo is hitting .372 and leads the team with 11 homers and 56 RBI.

Rick Spiers is hitting .322 with 49 RBI and Jeff Butler and Devin Strickler add eight and seven homers, respectively.

The Misericordia/Randolph-Macon winner will face the Oswego/Texas-Tyler winner Saturday.