2024 Baseball PSUAC Championships Preview
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The field of four is set for the PSUAC Baseball Championship weekend. After an opening weekend series, only Penn State Brandywine, Penn State Mont Alto, Penn State Schuylkill and defending champions Penn State DuBois remain standing.
The weekend will start on Sunday, May 5th at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park with first pitch at 11 a.m., with Brandywine and Mont Alto squaring off in an elimination game followed by Schuylkill and DuBois meeting in the winner's bracket at 2 p.m. The loser of the latter game will face the winner of the former at 5 p.m. in another elimination contest.
Championship day will be Monday, May 6th at Medlar Field, with the DuBois/Schuylkill winner advancing to the championship game to face the 5 p.m. game winner from the night before.
HOW THEY GOT HERE
The PSUAC Baseball postseason tournament starts within each respective division as three teams advance to the playoffs. The two and three-seeds meet in an elimination game, with the winner advancing to play the top-seed in the division. This game starts the double-elimination portion of the tournament.
Brandywine, who enters the weekend 23-14 overall and 15-5 in the PSUAC, was the first team to advance, picking up a win over East Division two-seed Penn State York by erasing an early 5-0 deficit and winning 11-5. They met top seed in the East, Schuylkill (31-12, 16-4 PSUAC), who prevailed 5-4 and sent Brandywine into the elimination bracket.
Over in the West, Mont Alto (27-15, 14-6 PSUAC) topped Penn State Greater Allegheny 13-2 to punch their ticket to Championship weekend. They turned around to face rival DuBois (31-9, 19-1 PSUAC) the same day, but couldn't keep the momentum with the bats going, falling 3-0 and into the elimination game this weekend.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Our first game will feature two perennial contenders, including the only team other than DuBois to win a conference title since 2017. That would be Mont Alto, who is led by ace Zach Garlin. Garlin picked up seven wins and pitched to a 3.20 ERA while striking out 69 batters, all good for top three in the PSUAC. Teammate Blake Orndorff leads the bats with a .462 average and is complemented by James Sibert who led the league in homers (8) and RBI (54). Brady Bigler also batted over .400 and drove in 27 runs while Wyatt Kissel smacked three homers and drove in 36 while batting .370.
Brandywine will likely send ace Connor Thompson to the hill, and despite his struggles on the first playoff weekend, has been phenomenal on the season. Thompson went 7-2 overall, including 4-1 in the PSUAC. He also finished third in innings pitched and was in the top five in conference ERA at 2.87. Brandywine offers a deep pitching staff, with Michael Govan and Jaylen Bryant serving as starters should Brandywine advance. Their bats include Cam Baughman and Sam Benvignati who hit .430 and .429, respectively. They also produce most of Brandywine's power, with Baughman hitting six homers and Benvignati adding three.
Schuylkill is this year's newcomer to the winner's bracket. The program has been to Championship weekend, but has always had to play in the early elimination game and has not advanced. This year, and team, are different. Tristian Baer provides a strong arm at the top of the staff, leading the league in wins with eight. He also led the league in ERA at 2.95, the only player in the PSUAC to be sub-3.00 this season. Owen Shoop was also solid on the mound for Schuylkill, while Owen Zimmerman provides a closer mentality for his team, picking up five saves on the year. Zimmerman is also Schuylkill's most potent bat, leading the league in hitting at .477 and driving in 47 runs, good for second in the PSUAC. Brenan Adams knocked in 40 runs as well for the top seed from the East.
The defending champions will enter with another veteran lineup, peppered with players who have led the program to conference and USCAA Small College World Series titles. Their bats are led by Tyler Yough and Brett Beith, who batted .427 and .364 this season. They each drove in more than 30 runs and hit three and five home runs, respectively. They're supplemented by the likes of Colby Bodtorf and Cory Lehman, each of whom batted over .370 and drove in at least 28 runs. Their pitching staff is anchored by Taylor Boland and Zach Tiracorda, along with Connor Cherry. All have pitched in big games for the defending champions and will look to use their experience to get out potent and veteran lineups this weekend.
RECENT HISTORY AND WHAT'S NEXT
The final four teams have met each other several times this season. Brandywine holds a 1-0 series lead over Mont Alto this season, winning a Feb. 25th non-conference game. Schuylkill leads Brandywine 3-2 on the season, including a regular season split of two games apiece. DuBois swept Mont Alto 4-0 in the regular season and picked up a fifth win on the first weekend of the playoffs.
Schuylkill did not face DuBois or Mont Alto this season, while DuBois and Brandywine also did not see each other in 2024.
The winner of the PSUAC Championship will earn the conference's automatic bid into the USCAA Small College World Series, slated for the week of May 12th in DuBois, Pa. The losers of the series will await their fate and hope for an at-large berth.
HOW TO FOLLOW
Fans can watch the PSUAC Championship series live or on demand on the PSU Campus Athletics Network or follow the live stats feed on the PSUAC schedule page. Live play-by-play will be provided on the live stream.
Fans joining us at University Park can click on the Fan Information page linked at the top of this story to access all of the information they'll need. Admission, live stats and the live stream are all free to enjoy.
