NCAA Division III Baseball Championship Tournament – Middletown, Pa. Regional

Best-of-Five Series: Penn State Harrisburg vs. No. 2 Salisbury

LIVE VIDEO | LIVE STATS | BRACKET | DIGITAL PROGRAM

Friday, May 19 | 12 p.m. | Penn State Harrisburg | Nittany Baseball Field

For the first time in program history, Penn State Harrisburg will host the Regional Round of the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. The Lions are set to host No. 2 Salisbury for a best-of-five series beginning on Friday afternoon, May 19.

LIVE VIDEO

(WATCH) All games will be streamed live and for free. Audio commentary will also be available for all contests.

LIVE STATS

(FOLLOW) Fans can keep up with all the action in real time with live stats.

GOING TO THE REGIONAL

(DIRECTIONS) Price of admission to the regional is $10 for all fans. Each ticket is good for admission to all games for the duration of the regional. Visitors can use all lots on campus to park on a first-come first-serve basis.

PENN STATE HARRISBURG IN NCAAS

Penn State Harrisburg is making its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance all-time and fourth in a row. The Lions secured automatic berths in each of the past three seasons, as well as in 2013, thanks to winning United East (formerly North Eastern Athletic Conference) Championships. Penn State Harrisburg also earned an at-large bid in 2019 after finishing one win shy of a Capital Athletic Conference (now Coast-to-Coast Conference) Championship. All of the program's NCAA Tournament appearances have come under the guidance of 11th-year head coach Ryan Bown. Last spring, the Lions fell to the regional hosts from No. 13 Denison before their season ended with a loss to William Paterson. In 2021, Penn State Harrisburg went 1-2 in NCAA action, defeating No. 24 Texas Lutheran before falling to No. 5 Wisconsin-Whitewater and being edged by No. 10 Adrian. The Lions went 1-2 in the tournament in 2019, defeating Alvernia to earn the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory and falling twice to Tufts. In 2013, they fell to No. 10 Kean before bowing out against No. 17 Johns Hopkins. Penn State Harrisburg is currently 2-8 all-time in NCAA Tournament play.

LAST TIME OUT

Penn State Harrisburg left no doubt in a 27-7 victory over Penn College that clinched the program's third straight United East Championship and secured a fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. Brendan Henn was named the United East Tournament MVP after hitting .625 and slugging 1.615 with four home runs, nine runs scored, seven RBI, a double, and two walks across three victories. He went 3-for-4 with a pair of home runs, five RBI, and four runs during the deciding victory. Lucas Floyd, Dallas Hite, and Blaine Waltimyer each went yard and Carlos Irizarry had a four-hit game. The Lions exploded for 14 runs in a sixth inning that included home runs from Henn and Hite, doubles from Josh Lantz and Floyd, RBI singles from Irizarry, Hite, and Waltimyer, and a two-hour weather delay smack dab in the middle of the stanza. The break did little to slow the Penn State Harrisburg bats, however, with the Lions scoring seven runs before the pause and seven more after play resumed.

CONTINUED SUCCESS

This spring, the Lions clinched their third straight regular-season conference title before capturing the fourth conference championship in program history after also achieving the feat in 2022, 2021, and 2013. This season, Penn State Harrisburg matched a program-record 33 victories and reached the 30-win mark for the fourth time in five years after posting 29 victories and a program-best .763 win percentage during the abbreviated 2021 campaign. Since taking over the reins of the program in 2013, head coach Ryan Bown's teams have amassed 248 total victories with five NCAA Tournament appearances, four conference championships, six all-America honors, three academic all-America accolades, four NCAA statistical championships, and 24 all-region honors.

LAST MEETING WITH SALISBURY

Behind a stellar start from Danny Eden and timely home runs from Matt Parks and Lucas Floyd in the only meeting between the two teams this season, Penn State Harrisburg came away with an 8-2 victory over No. 1 Salisbury back on April 23. Eden earned the win after allowing just two runs on seven hits to go along with four strikeouts in 6.1 innings thrown. Parks hit a three-run home run in the second inning, Floyd added a solo shot in the sixth, and Brendan Henn had a three-hit day.

ALL-TIME SERIES

Penn State Harrisburg and Salisbury have met 21 times, with most of those matchups coming when the programs faced off annually as members of the former Capital Athletic Conference (now Coast-to-Coast Conference) from 2014 to 2019. The Sea Gulls lead the all-time series 16-5 but the Lions have had more success as of late, winning four of the last six outings between the squads dating back to May 2019.

AT THE POLLS

Penn State Harrisburg continued to receive votes in both national polls this week. The Lions received 28 votes in the latest ABCA/Collegiate Baseball National Rankings and 23 votes in the most-recent D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 Poll. Penn State Harrisburg also ranks fourth in the final NCAA Division III Region IV ranking of the spring.

BATS AMONG THE BEST

Penn State Harrisburg's offense has been one of the most formidable in all of Division III this season. As a team, the Lions rank second in the nation in scoring (11.1 runs per game), runs scored (476), batting average (.365), hits (560), and on-base percentage (.462). They rank third in the country in walks (257), fifth in Division III in slugging percentage (.566), and eighth in the nation in home runs (59). 

INDIVIDUAL ACCOLADES

A number of Penn State Harrisburg players were recognized for their individual efforts this spring. Carlos Irizarry was recently named the United East Rookie of the Year and joined Maddux Ryan, Kevin Lehner, Matt Parks, Dallas Hite, Fisher Druck, and Josh Berzonski on the United East All-Conference First Team, while Brendan Henn and Danny Eden earned all-conference second-team honors. Ryan (twice), Lehner, and Hite have earned United East Player of the Week honors this season, while three others in Hunter Merritt (twice), Eden, and Druck have been named United East Pitcher of the Week. Lehner was also named to the D3baseball.com Team of the Week last month.

WHAT'S NEXT

The winner of the Middletown Regional will face off against the winner of the Ambler Regional hosted by No. 21 Arcadia in Super Regional action next weekend with a trip to the Division III College World Series on the line.

STAY CONNECTED

Fans can keep up with Penn State Harrisburg Athletics all season long on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube using the handle @pshbgathletics.