The Misericordia University baseball team will open the 2024 NCAA D-III World Series against Pomona-Pitzer, Friday at 10:00 a.m. at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, OH.

Misericordia, 38-9, is seeded fifth in the eight-team field and is making its second straight World Series appearance.  This is the first meeting between the Cougars and the Sagehens, who are making their first World Series appearance.

The MU/Pomona-Pitzer winner will face the winner of top-seeded Endicott and defending national champion Lynchburg, Saturday.

The survivor of the double-elimination bracket will meet the winner of bracket 2 between Salve Regina/Birmingham-Southern/Wisconsin-Whitewater/Randolph Macon in a best-of-three championships series.

Misericordia was 1-2 in last year's World Series, including a win over Endicott.  The Cougars split a pair of games with Randolph Macon in the 2018 World Series. 

The Cougars came from the loser's bracket to beat Salve Regina twice in the 2023 NCAA Regional championships.  Misericordia has never met Lynchburg, Birmingham-Southern or Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The Misericordia pitching staff is led by D3baseball.com All-Americans Joe Valenti, Connor Maryniak and Matt Lanzendorfer.

Valenti, a fourth-team All-American, is 10-2 with a 2.02 earned run average and is tied with Maryniak for fourth in the country in victories.  He is second all-time in school history with 22 wins and is third with 200 strikeouts and has established school single-season records with 15 starts and 101.1 innings pitched.

The MAC Freedom Player of the Year, Maryniak was a first-team All-American selection as a utility player after splitting time between the mound and shortstop.  He is 10-2 with a 1.96 ERA.  At the plate, he helps his owns cause with new school single-season records of 68 RBI and 122 total bases.  He tied the school record with 13 homers.

Lanzendorfer was a third-team selection as a relief pitcher.  He is 3-0 a 1.15 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 31.1 innings.  He has seven saves, the second-highest single-season total in school history.

Steve Rinda is 7-1 in 11 starts and is 3-1 with a 2.84 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 25.1 innings in 11 appearances, including 10 out of the bullpen.

Offensively, the Cougars are third in the nation with 124 hit by pitches and fifth with 140 stolen bases.

Lead-off man Garrett McIlhenney is third in the country with 26 HBPs and is 11^th with a .554 on-base %.  He set the D-III single-season record with 33 HBP a year ago and is second all-time with 88 HBP. 

Left fielder Joe Comins is second on the team in batting (.387), runs (51), hits (63) and RBI (46) while catcher Brock Bollinger is hitting .360 with 22 extra-base hits and 45 RBI.

Pomona-Pitzer is 37-12 after capturing the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference championship and sweeping East Texas Baptist in the Super Regional.

The Sagehens are led by SCIAC Player of the Year Isaac Kim and Pitcher of the Year Jake Hilton.  Kim was a second-team D3baseball.com All-American at first base while teammate JC Ng made third-team as an outfielder.

Kim is second in the country with 79 RBI and is fifth with 143 total bases.  Ng is third in the nation with 71 runs scored and is fifth with 82 hits.

Hilton is 9-2 with a 2.71 ERA while Hannoh Seo is 10-1 with a 2.33 ERA.  Eric Prough has five saves and a 2.08 ERA.