BEREA, Ohio — After winning 30 games during the regular season for the first time in Ross Natoli's 39 years at the helm, the Catholic University baseball team prepares for its fifth NCAA Tournament Appearance in program history.

The Cardinals travel North to Baldwin Wallace to face Adrian as part of the Berea Regional. Penn State Behrend is the fourth team in the pod who will face the hosts in the opening game on Friday prior to Catholic's battle with the Bulldogs at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

The Cardinals return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since their magical run to the Division III World Series in 2022. Catholic won the Winchester Regional that season with an opening round victory over Stevens before defeating hosts Shenandoah twice, including in the winner-take-all regional championship in dramatic fashion, 13-10. Catholic then defeated Ithaca in its first-ever Super Regional appearance, winning the best-of-three series in three games to advance to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Catholic's only other NCAA Tournament win came in the team's first-ever bid to the big dance, when the Cardinals defeated Kean in 2011.

Catholic's 31-win season has been made even more impressive by the fact that the team has battled injuries to key players all season. Key players Dante Pozzi and Matthew Fisher, who both have NCAA Tournament experience from 2022, have both missed extended periods due to injury while at one point Catholic was down to its third-string catcher. Joe Marini is also a key miss.

All-Landmark Conference first baseman Zach Burton and long-time starter Derek Zelesnick will provide the team with that NCAA Tournament experience while the injury issues at catcher allowed Logan Eilbacher to stake his claim to that position and really excel. The impressive freshman has matched Burton with a joint-team-high eight home runs while batting .345 with 33 RBIs and 27 runs scored en route to earning Landmark Conference Rookie of the Year honors.

A newcomer has also made a huge impact on the mound as Roman Tozzi produced a stellar regular season. The sophomore transfer went 8-0 with a 1.86 ERA as he established himself as the out-and-out ace of the staff prior to the only blemish on his record against Scranton in the first game of the Landmark Conference Tournament last weekend. Tozzi's brilliant season earned him pitcher of the year honors, meaning a Cardinal has now been named the conference's pitcher of the season in each of the last three campaigns after standout Tucker Alch earned the honor in 2022 and 2023.

Burton leads the team with a .388 batting average, 59 hits, 17 doubles, 36 walks and 19 hit-by-pitches while Mitchel Johnson leads the way with 44 RBIs. As a team, the Cardinals hit .301 as eight of the 14 players who have featured in 15 or more games have eclipsed the .300 mark this year.

Cody Bosak earned Second Team All-Conference honors after a stellar season on the mound. He went 4-1 with a staggeringly low ERA of 1.20 and struck out 54 opponents in 45.0 innings pitched. He also only walked 15 batters and produced a whip of .93, bettering Tozzi's mark of .94.

Danny Fitzgerald has also had a solid season in a starting role on the mound, posting a 4-2 mark with a 3.67 ERA. Catholic will be looking for production out of their bullpen from the likes of Sam Fairhurst, Cormac Terry, Danny Prior, Luke Cardman and Brendan Martin, among others.

The battle with Adrian (29-14) out of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association promises to be a tough task. The Bulldogs reached the regional final last year before losing the Marietta and are also recent participants in the Division III World Series. Adrian went on a magical run to Cedar Rapids in 2021 where they won a game over Johns Hopkins before being eliminated to complete a brilliant 37-10 season.

Adrian has only lost one game since April 20, producing an 11-1 mark since that time. Their record, however, does indicate two additional losses as the Bulldogs were forced to double-forfeit two games with Hope after a benches-clearing brawl. Adrian defeated Hope twice during a clean run to the MIAA Championship, and interestingly, its only loss during that 11-1 stretch was to Penn State Behrend, the other participant in the Berea Regional.

More information about the regional format and gameday specifics, including information on parking, can be found here on the tournament hub webpage.

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