Baseball Primed for Weekend Series vs. Stonehill

Matchup	Stonehill (12-11, 1-0 NE Div.) at Merrimack (9-10, 1-0 NE Div.)
Dates//Times	Saturday, March 30 (12 | 3 pm) Sunday, March 31 (12 pm)
Venue (Sat.)	Harrington Athletics Village | Brighton, Mass.
Venue (Sun.)	Saint John's Preparatory School | Danvers, Mass.
Links	Live Stats // Twitter // Instagram // Directions (Sat.) // Directions (Sun.)

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Merrimack College baseball program faces Stonehill College this weekend for the programs' three-game Northeast Division series. The Warriors and Skyhawks will play a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon beginning at 12 p.m. from the Harrington Athletics Village in Brighton, Mass., the home of the Boston College Eagles. Sunday's game will begin at 12 p.m. from Saint John's Preparatory School in Danvers, Mass.

Five Things to Know:

• Senior Cam Monagle tossed a gem for the Warriors to begin divisional play on Wednesday, needing only 86 pitches to throw a complete game shutout against the Bentley Falcons. Merrimack scored three times to support its senior starter, led by a two-hit day including a double and RBI for senior captain Matthew Ronai
• Junior Joey Porricelli added a pair of knocks and scored his 100^th career run, becoming the 12^th player in program history to reach the century mark. Porricelli leads the team in the majority of offensive statistics including hits (25), runs (20), homers (4), RBI (18) and steals (11).
• Offensively, sophomore Michael Jamele joins Porricelli as Warriors hitting above .300, posting a .333 clip in 42 plate appearances. Junior Nick Shumski has a enjoyed a career year at the plate to date, sitting a tie for the team lead with 18 runs knocked in, which also equals his entire total over 52 games last season
• The sophomore tandem of Timmy Kalantzakos and Vin Zappulla expect to take the ball this weekend. The former's 2.79 ERA is second best among Merrimack's rotation arms while the latter's 20 strikeouts are second on the team. The duo lead Merrimack in innings pitched; Zappulla's 31.0 mark sits atop the rankings followed closely by Kalantzakos' 29.0 frames
• Monagle's impressive outing on Wednesday lowered his team-leading ERA to 1.03, which ranks third across the NE10. Merrimack has three of the league's top 18 pitchers in terms of ERA (Monagle, Kalantzakos, Zappulla), the most of any program in that bracket

Scouting the Opposition:

Merrimack (9-10, 1-0 NE Div.)	Stat Category	Stonehill (12-11, 1-0 NE Div.)
.235	Batting Average	.270
.328	On-Base Percentage	.349
.329	Slugging Percentage	.394
4.96	Team ERA	5.16
130	Team Strikeouts	168
33	Total Stolen Bases	32
.967	Team Fielding Percentage	.965
Joey Porricelli (.313)	Batting Average Leader	Harrison Sabo (.364)
Porricelli (4)	Home Runs Leader	Two Tied (3)
Porricelli (18)	RBI Leader	Sabo (27)
Cam Monagle (1.03)	ERA Leader (Individual)	Michael Young (1.98)
Sean Thompson (21)	Strikeouts Leader	Young (44)

Up Next:
Merrimack is scheduled to play its first divisional game of the season against the Assumption College Greyhounds on Tuesday afternoon. First pitch from Rocheleau Field in Worcester, Mass. is set for 3:30 p.m.