WESTMINSTER, Md. – McDaniel will travel to Baltimore, Md., in search of its first Centennial Conference (CC) baseball championship this weekend.
The third-seeded Green Terror (18-12, 11-7 CC) will first travel to Lancaster to face second-seeded Franklin & Marshall (25-10, 13-5 CC) for the opening-round game on Thursday. Game time is 3 p.m. Top-seeded Johns Hopkins (23-9-1, 13-4-1 CC) will host fourth-seeded Haverford (13-18, 9-9 CC) in the other semifinal of the double-elimination tournament on Thursday at 3 p.m.
The losers of the Thursday's two games will meet at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning at Johns Hopkins with the winners meeting at 12 p.m. or 30 minutes following the conclusion of the day's first game. Saturday concludes with a second elimination game at approximately 4 p.m.
The championship game will take place at Johns Hopkins on Sunday at 12 p.m.
The tournament's champion will earn the CC's automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Division III tournament, slated to begin on May 14. The NCAA field will be announced on Sunday, May 10.
McDaniel is seeking its first CC championship in its third tournament appearance and first since 2012.
McDaniel split with Franklin & Marshall in the regular-season series in Westminster. The Green Terror needed 12 innings for a 2-1 victory in game one on Mar. 28 before the Diplomats responded late in game two to win, 10-4.
The Green Terror was swept by Haverford in Westminster on Apr. 11, falling 6-1 in the opener. The Fords then topped McDaniel 14-6 in game two.
The Green Terror also split with Johns Hopkins, falling 12-5 in Baltimore on Sunday, Apr. 12 before rallying from an 11-2 deficit to notch a 13-12, 10-inning victory a day later in Westminster. McDaniel has not lost since that game, entering the tournament on a conference-best nine-game winnings streak.
McDaniel enters the tournament with the conference's top offense, hitting a collective .320 on the year. Seven of the Green Terror's starting nine are hitting .300 or better. Cameron Bahr (Southampton, N.J./Seneca) leads the way with a .396 average. Marty Windisch (Manchester, Md./Manchester Valley) is hitting .391 with a team-best and single-season program-record 52 hits. He has eight doubles, three triples and a home run among his knocks.
Windisch also leads the pitching staff with a 2.90 ERA in his 40 1/3 innings. He is 3-3 with 30 strikeouts. Zach Kronick (Schenectady, N.Y./Guilderland) has fanned a team-high 47 and is 3-1 with a 3.86 ERA in 44 1/3 innings.
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