Contact: Jenna McElroy, Sports Info & Social Media Intern, mcelroy@midwestconference.org
 
GRINNELL, Iowa – After finishing first in the Midwest Conference (MWC) South Division for the second straight year, Monmouth College is set to host the MWC Baseball Tournament this Friday and Saturday. The winner of the four-team tournament will not only be named MWC Champion but also earn an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
 
The first two games are set for Friday at 10:30 a.m. with Monmouth hosting Ripon College, the two seed out of the North Division at Glasgow Field, while the North one seed, University of Chicago will play Cornell College at Blodgett Field in Galesburg, Illinois. The full schedule can be found at the tournament page.
 
The Scots enter the 2019 MWC Tournament with a pitching staff that led the league with only 82 walks allowed while striking out the second most hitters at 285 and posting the second-best ERA of 3.77. Brothers Tyler and Connor McDonald headline the starting rotation with Tyler pitching the second most innings (62) in the conference. Tyler and Connor rank first and third in strikeouts at 74 and 60 respectively while Tyler allowed an opposing batting average of just .179.
 
The lineup hit just .266 as a team but boast MWC home run leader Mike Dato. The first baseman hit a league-best six homers while driving in 39 runs. Dato also collected 15 doubles as he slugged .564 in the regular season. However, Monmouth’s first-round opponent has the conference’s leading hitter.
 
Ripon catcher Michael Barnes batted a league-best .429, slugged .604, and reached base at a .500 clip. The lineup also features Keegan Johnston who drove in 40 runs and finished just one home run shy of Dato with five. The Red Hawks aren’t all bat though as they also have a pair of pitchers with two of the top five ERA’s in the league.
 
Brice Swick is coming off his second complete game win of the season where he struck out a single-game school record 15 hitters, which ranks him just behind Tyler McDonald with 69 total strikeouts this season. Swick also holds the third lowest ERA at 1.96 in the most innings pitched at 64.1. Teammate Brian Brown ranks fifth in ERA and strikeouts at 2.39 and 55 respectively.
 
The winner will advance to play either UChicago or Cornell on Friday afternoon. The Maroons and the Rams round one meeting is a rematch of a cross-division series the two teams played in early April. Cornell tallied seven singles in a six-run second inning to take the opening game of the series 9-3. The two closed out the series with a couple of close games as Chicago won 4-1 then took the series with a 12-7 12 inning win.
 
The Maroons make the MWC Tournament in just their first season in the league behind the conference’s best lineup and pitching staff. Chicago’s hitters recorded a team batting average of .316 this season while the pitching staff posted an ERA of 3.58.
 
Brian Lyle, Payton Jacncsy, and Carson Weekley all hit over .350 and finished in the top ten of the conference. Weekley and Jancsy also are in the top ten in slugging percentage while Lyle and Weekley both had on-base percentages above .470.
 
On the mound, Kyle Petri led the league with a minuscule 0.79 ERA and .140 opposing batting average while tying Connor McDonald for third in strikeouts with 60. Sam Bennett wasn’t too far behind as he held hitters to a .188 average while striking out 52.
 
They will face a Rams lineup that has two of the top sluggers in the conference. Caleb Wichman led the MWC with a .653 slugging percentage and .511 on-base percentage. He scored 42 runs, drove in 36, and racked up 14 doubles and five home runs. Teammate Cale Jamesson matched his home run total while knocking out two more doubles as he slugged .592 this season.
 
Kyler Steinborn leads Cornell’s pitchers with an ERA of 3.38 in 20.2 innings while Adam Tvedt waits in the bullpen as he has finished off eight games and earned four saves.
 
The winner will play the winner of game one at 2:30 p.m. Friday while the game one and two losers will play an elimination game at the same time.