IMMACULATA, Pa.- The Immaculata baseball team is set to begin its Atlantic East Tournament run on Wednesday afternoon opposite a familiar foe in local rival Cabrini. Immaculata and Cabrini are set to square off in the opening game of the Atlantic East Tournament on Wednesday, beginning at 2 p.m. at the Immaculata baseball field after Immaculata secured the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic East Tournament following a split with the Cavaliers last Thursday to conclude the regular season.

Immaculata enters the Tournament, having split its meeting with Cabrini on Thursday, May 13^th, to conclude the regular season while also claiming the season series over the Cavaliers 2-1. This season series victory also allowed Immaculata to reclaim the lead in the all-time series as Immaculata is now 7-6 opposite the Cavaliers since the series began during the 2017 season.

Immaculata has enjoyed a strong 2021 season as the Macs enter the Tournament with an 18-5 record and a mark of 14-4 in league play. Immaculata opened the season with a split vs. regional foe PSU-Abington before winning its next 15 games in a row, which set a new program winning streak record in the process. Immaculata finally had its winning streak snapped by Gwynedd Mercy at the end of the month of April as the Griffins took 1-of-3 from the Macs. Following this, Immaculata took the first game of the three-game weekend series from Marymount to conclude April before dropping a pair of games to the Saints to open the month of May.

Offensively, Immaculata has been among the most dangerous teams in the league this season, scoring 206 runs over the course of 23 games. Immaculata has been led by a pair of sophomores in Josh Crowding and Joey Wright, who enter the Tournament as the Macs batting average leaders, batting .444 and .421, respectively. Crowding, who also leads the team in multi-RBI and multi-hit games with 12 and 10, respectively, also enters play with a 21-game reached base streak, which is the longest on the team. Crowding and Wright also rank first and second on the team in RBI with 33 and 25, while Crowding also leads the team in home runs with six on the year while Wright is tied with teammate Isaiah Payton for second with four home runs on the season. Senior Tyler Kmiec has also put together another strong season as he enters the Atlantic East Tournament with a team-high 33 runs scored and a .315 batting average with 28 hits, including 14 extra-base hits over the course of his career. On the mound, Junior right-handed pitcher Ryan Crowell has been a key force for the Macs throughout the 2021 season, pitching to a record of 5-1 on the year with an ERA of just 3.65, which is the best among all Mighty Mac starters. Crowell has tossed a team-high 37.0 innings on the year, striking out 35 over the course of his work. With an opposing batting average against of just .254, Crowell has not been kind to opposing offenses throughout the year. Against left-handed hitters, Crowell has limited them to a batting average of just .125 (3-for-24), while right-handed hitters have not had much more success, batting just .281 (32-for-114) off the junior righty.
 
Cabrini enters the Atlantic East Tournament as the third-seeded team in the five-team field. Cabrini opened the year with a record of 2-4 in non-conference play before kicking off Atlantic East action with on a five-game winning streak with a sweep of Marywood and single-game victories over Gwynedd Mercy (whom the Cavaliers would later sweep a doubleheader from) and Wesley (whom Cabrini took two-of-three from). Cabrini fell to Immaculata in the first game of the season series before going on another six-game winning streak, which included a sweep of Neumann, the doubleheader sweep of Gwynedd Mercy, and a single-game victory over Marymount before dropping the final two games of the weekend series to the Saints. Immaculata and Cabrini met on Thursday, May 13th, to conclude the regular season, splitting the doubleheader as Cabrini ended the year with a record of 15-9 overall and 13-5 in league play to enter the Tournament as the No. 3 seed.
 
As a team, Cabrini enters the Tournament with a .353 batting average and an average of 10.03 runs per game. Mack McKisson has been the Cavaliers offensive leader throughout the year as he has registered an impressive .500 batting average with 36 runs scored, both of which are tops on the team, while his 38 RBI ranks him second on the team. Steven Priest has also been an offensive weapon for the Cavaliers this season as he leads the team in RBI with 41 on the season while his .418 batting average ranks him second on the squad entering play on Wednesday afternoon. On the mound, Jonathan Baker has been the Cavaliers top arm this season, throwing a staff-best 51.2 earnings with an ERA of 5.05 and a WHIP of 1.30 while pitching to a record of 5-1. Baker provides the Cavaliers with great pitching depth as he has demonstrated the ability to routinely go deep in games, tossing three complete games on the year in victories over Wesley and Marymount. The junior right-handed pitcher has also eclipsed the 100-pitch plateau three times this season, including a 134-pitch effort in his complete-game victory over Marymount on May 7th. Against the Mighty Macs, Baker has had limited success as he has tossed just three innings over the course of two appearances (one start), surrendering 12 hits and nine runs while walking five in pair of setbacks for the Cavaliers. Mike Valerio has also proven himself to be a solid second option in the Cavaliers rotation as he has pitched to a record of 3-1 in seven appearances and four starts with 34.0 innings pitched. Over the course of his 34 innings, Valerio has registered an ERA of 4.76 and a WHIP of 1.41 on the year.
 
With a victory, Immaculata will be just two wins away from its first Atlantic East Championship and subsequent trip to the NCAA Tournament. Should Immaculata prevail, the Macs would return to action at 3:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon against the winner of the Marymount/Neumann vs Wesley game. If the Macs fall on Wednesday afternoon, the team will return to action at 12 p.m. on Friday afternoon opposite the loser of the Marymount/Neumann vs Wesley game, needing to win that game and again at 7 p.m. on Friday evening to advance to the Championship series.