Cougar baseball off to Super Regional
It is one final practice for the Misericordia baseball team before they take the 7-hour ride to the NCAA super regionals. The Cougars started clicking in last weekend's regional winning back-to-back games to advance.
Pete Egbert, Misericordia baseball Manager says, “ Our bats got hot at the right time. We pitched and we competed and those are the things we talk about on a consistant basis. I am not surpassed but as I said but you have to play well to win. “
Brock Bollinger, Misericordia Sophomore(Palmerton) added, “ I wouldn’t say it was a surprise. We knew what we are cable of doing and we really put it all out there. “
The bats came alive at the right time for Misericordia scoring 31 runs in those two regional wins.
Egbert says, “ It is a gutty group. Offensively we are pretty veteran and dynamic and there was a period two weeks ago when our offense was not performing the way it did all year but this past weekend they were pretty good. “
Bollinger added, “ Our bats have a little bit of everything. Top of the order and bottom of the lineup we have some really fast guys. Then when we get toward the middle of the lineup it is really more power guys that can drive in runs. The top-of-the-lineups job though is to get in the middle and drive them in. “
The pitching follows the hitting limiting the top seed to just 15 runs in those games. It is a staff that can throw out a variety of talent.
Bollinger says, “We have a lot of different guys thawing a lot different velocities and different pitches. We have a starter that throws 82 mph and one that throws 92 mph and that is just how it works, it is baseball. “
David McCurry, Misericordia Senior pitcher added, “ We have four starters and we were able to move one of our starters in the regular season into the bull one into the pen where we think he is better that helped us a lot. And coming back to Joe V from injury really helped us as a starter. “
Misericordia is no stranger to this part of the division three playoffs. In 2021 they made it to regionals, in 2019 to the super regionals, and in 2018 the World Series. The team they are playing Marietta College in Ohio made it to the worlds series last season.
Egbert says, “Everybody is good this time of year. Marietta is very good they are going to be sound fundamentally. They are going to throw it over the plate, execute on offense and it is a tough place to play. But I don’t know, from experience you just have to get hot at the right time. Things are going to have to go your way that is how it is when everybody is this talented so hopefully, it works out for us. “
Misericordia's first game is Friday at noon.
