LIVONIA, Mich. -  The Madonna University baseball team is prepped and ready to go for the start of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Tournament that begins this afternoon, May 6. The Crusaders finished the regular season at 16-13 overall and a conference record of 12-8. The conference record left the Crusaders in the fifth spot in the final standings. 

The Crusaders are traveling to Fort Wayne, Indiana for the first round of the tournament that will feature two other teams, Indiana Tech University and University of Michigan - Dearborn. Madonna will face off against Michigan Dearborn in the first game that starts at noon, and will later face Indiana Tech at either 3pm or 6 pm. 

SERIES HISTORY

The Crusaders will see two teams that they were swept by in the regular season, in the Wolverines and Warriors and will look to reverse course in the tournament. 

All time against the Wolverines, Madonna is 2-5 as they have lost the last four games in the series. The Crusaders though have grabbed one neutral site victory back in 2019.

The Crusaders have seen different success against the Warriors as they come into the game today with a 53-31 record in a series that dates back to 2004. Madonna has seen good results when playing either at home or away as their record when playing at the Warriors home park is 21-15. 

ABOUT MADONNA

Madonna comes into the game being led by Adrian Reed, Jace Matkin and Zachary Beadle who are hitting .385, .374, .365 respectively. In the power department, Matkin leads the team with six home runs, followed by Noah Moore with four. Matkin and Reed also are driving in the most runs on the team with 35 and 25 RBIs respectively. 

In the pitching department, the Crusaders are being led by starters Nate Blain and Donovan Thacker who have 1.67 and a 4.05 ERA respectively. Blain leads the team in wins with five. Coming out of the bullpen, John Beuckelaere and Ross Rickel have ERAs of 1.00 and a 2.63. Beuckelaere also comes into the game with five saves. 

Historically the Crusaders have seen success in the tournament as they have won a total of 5 tournament championships with their most recent one in the 2018 season. The Crusaders claimed the first tournament title in 2000, winning as the three seed. 

ABOUT MICHIGAN DEARBORN

Dearborn comes into the game today with an overall record of 11-12 and a conference record of 10-8. The Wolverines have ended the season on a high note winning six of their final eight games in order to earn the sixth seed in the tournament. 

Offensively, Dearborn is led by Shane Fugate and Max Mclennen who both are hitting .367 on the season. Antonio Carta and Fugate both provide the power in the lineup for the Wolverines as they have hit four and three home runs respectively. Nathan Mack and Fugate and Carta drive in a good amount of runs as they driven in 21, 21 and 20 runs respectively. 

Tyler Koons and John Dyda both head the pitching staff with a 3.50 and a 3.71 ERA throughout the season. Koons leads the team with four wins and 30 strikeouts. 

ABOUT INDIANA TECH

For the Warriors, they are coming fresh off winning their ninth regular season conference title as they have won three out of the last four seasons and are looking to win their eighth tournament title overall. They currently have a record of 31-23 and a conference record of 16-6. 

In the lineup, Yeshua Saint and Spencer Mcghee hit the ball at a .388 and .382 clip respectively throughout their season. Those two also lead the home run category for the team with Mcghee at nine and Saint with eight. Mike Snyder has been another key piece as he has driven in 49 runs throughout the season.

Charles Dunavan and Hayes Sturstman head the pitching staff for the Warriors with a 3.65 and a 3.74 ERA overall. Ryan Troxel and Dunavan both head off the win column with five apiece. 

WHAC TOURNAMENT

A total of six teams made it to the conference tournament, including these three teams. Concordia will play host to the other three teams as they finished in second place in the WHAC. They are playing host to University of Northwestern Ohio, who finished third, and Cornerstone, who finished in fourth place. 

Those tournament games will be played on Thursday also as UNOH and Cornerstone will begin at 10am with Concordia facing the loser of that game at 1pm followed by the winner at 4pm. 

The Championship game will feature the top two teams that come out from the two pods and will begin on Monday May 10 and Tuesday May 11. The series will be a best-of-three games with a potential third will follow the game on Tuesday. 

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