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Charleston, W.Va- Charleston Baseball is once again sitting atop the throne as king of the Mountain East Conference. After a 13-5 win over Glenville State in the winner takes all Championship game on Sunday, May 15^th, UC claimed the automatic bid to the NCAA Atlantic Regional in Millersville, PA.
 
History
 
Since 2017, Charleston Baseball has made the Mountain East Conference Tournament Championship game five times and have won three of those appearances. In 2022 the Golden Eagles put together a dominant run in the MEC Tournament. They went 4-1, scored an average of 10.6 runs per game as they defeated two teams, Notre Dame College and Fairmont State, by way of mercy rule. Their only loss came to Glenville State in game one of the championship, a 5-4 defeat that came after a few miscues on the defensive end. Their decisive 13-5 victory in the winner takes all game marks their third MEC Championship in their last four tournament appearances.
 
Rewind back to 2016 and the first year of head coach Andrew Wright's four years at the helm of the University of Charleston Baseball team and you will see a notice a clear cut difference in quality of players and quality of performance.
 
In 2016 Andrew Wright took over a program that won just 13 games the year prior. He would add just three wins to that total in his first year as head coach, but his vision was more important than the results of a single season. The next year, 2017, was the best year in program history. Charleston made their first MEC Championship and forced a winner takes all game on Sunday of the MEC Tournament with Shepherd University that they would ultimately lose 13-6. However, the seeds for a championship program had been planted and they would blossom into a reign of dominance unseen by any other Mountain East Conference Baseball team.
 
Andrew Wright captured his first MEC Championship trophy as they defeated Shepherd in a Championship rematch in 2018. This began a reign of dominance for the Golden Eagles as they made their first NCAA Atlantic Regional appearance in school history and won two games in the Millersville regional. In 2019, Andrew Wright led the team to yet another MEC Tournament title. They would sweep through the competition, going 4-0 and defeating Notre Dame College in the Championship 9-8. They would make their second consecutive regional appearance, this time winning West Chester regional after defeating Gannon University. Their win gave them an opportunity to compete in their first ever Super Regional hosted by Mercyhurst University. There, they won the first game of the best of three series and were just one win away from their first College World Series appearance, but unfortunately dropped the next two games and were eliminated.
 
2019 marked a new school record for program single season wins and Andrew Wright was afforded an opportunity with the New York Yankees that summer. His successor, Robbie Britt, took over with grand expectations in 2020. He would get off to a program best start winning 9 of the first 14 games before Covid-19 cancelled the season in early March.
 
2021 saw Charleston make history once again with Britt at the helm. Although they would lose in the MEC Tournament without making it to the title game for the first time since 2016, the team hosted its first ever NCAA Atlantic Regional at the brand new Welch Athletic Complex. Once again, Charleston made some noise in the 5-team regional. They dropped their first game on a walk off home run by Bloomsburg before taking two straight decisive wins from West Virginia State and Bloomsburg. They would fall 3-1 in the semifinal game to Millersville, who would go on to fall to Seton Hill the next day in the championship game.
 
However, for four straight years the University of Charleston Baseball team has earned a spot in the NCAA Atlantic Regional, and they are one of just three teams (Seton Hill & Millersville) to accomplish this feat.
 
2022 Regional Preview
 
Charleston enters the 2022 Atlantic Regional #2 as the No. 7 seed and will face off against host Millersville on Thursday, May 19 at 11 a.m. at Cooper Park. They currently hold an overall record of 37-16, going 25-7 in MEC play during the regular season. They will be in a bracket with No. 2 overall seed Millersville, No. 3 seed Gannon, and No. 6 seed East Stroudsburg.
 
This will be the fourth time that Charleston has faced off against the Marauders in an NCAA Atlantic Regional. The previous three games saw Charleston win one game in 2018 in the opening round of the Millersville Regional, before losing an elimination game in the same year. They were eliminated by the Marauders again in 2021 in the Atlantic Regional hosted in Charleston, WV.
 
This season the Golden Eagles have been utterly dominant in all aspects of the game. Their 4.52 team ERA best in the MEC as is their .337 batting average. They led the MEC in walks, on base percentage, triples, and RBI. Their pitching staff has racked up 10 shutouts on the season, have allowed 365 hits and have given up 218 earned runs, all those being best in the MEC. They have also racked up 449 strikeouts which is 54 better than second place Glenville State. Pitching held opponents to just a .248 batting average on the season, 22 points lower than the second place team, Frostburg State.
 
They are second in the MEC in stolen bases with 134 and redshirt senior Jordan Bailey leads the way in that category with 35. He is just one stolen base shy of tying the school record held by Colby Johnson at 36.
 
They dropped just one MEC series all year and that came from a 3-1 series defeat to Glenville State on April 23^rd through the 24^th. In addition, they squared off against West Virginia University two weeks prior to the MEC Tournament and took a 2-1 lead into the ninth inning before ultimately falling 3-2 on a walk off single.
 
They are led on offense by Tyler Dellerman who is hitting .402 on the season with a team leading 12 home runs, 65 RBI, and 56 runs scored. Dellerman, a redshirt junior from Maineville, OH, set a new school record for RBI this season, surpassing the previous record held by Colby Johnson of 57. He leads the NCAA in sacrifice flies with 11 and is slugging .764 on the season with a 1.220 OPS.
 
Braxton Boddorf is hitting .384 on the season with a team leading 71 hits. He has racked up 48 runs scored, 46 RBI and is 20-23 in stolen base attempts.
 
Brayden McCallister is currently leading the team in hitting with a .407 season average. In just 13 starts he has notched 26 runs scored, has recorded 22 hits in 54 at bats and has walked nine times. His .552 on base percentage is second best on the team behind Eric Chartier. Chartier, who has battled through various injuries throughout the season currently holds a .389 average, a .534 on base percentage, and has racked up 15 doubles in just 90 at bats. He has tallied 32 runs and 25 RBI on the season as well.
 
Designated hitter Drew Klaserner is another threat in the deep UC lineup. He is batting .362 with 12 doubles, 24 RBI and has 20 walks in 94 at bats, good enough for a .466 on base percentage.
 
Colt Webb has been the rock of the starting rotation for UC this season and he holds a 3.24 ERA and in 83.1 innings he has struck out a team high 92 hitters. He is followed closely by Ethan Soderna who has tossed 78.2 innings with 91 strikeouts. Soderna has allowed just 12 extra base hits on the season and holds a 3.43 ERA which is third best on the team. Owen MacNeil rounds out the three headed monster of the UC rotation. He has thrown 48.0 innings, has struck out 55 and has held opponents to just a .225 batting average.
 
Millersville is lead offensively by Luke Trainer. Trainer is hitting .430 on the season with 21 doubles and 66 RBI. Bren Taylor will be another weapon that UC pitching will have to deal with. The junior is hitting .417 with a team leading 83 hits and a .504 on base percentage. Thomas Caufield leads the Marauders with 14 home runs, 73 RBI and 22 doubles. He is currently slugging .709 and has a team leading 1.161 OPS.
 
Ben Wilchacky leads Millersville in innings pitched with 74.1 and has rallied 74 strikeouts on the season. Wilchacky has not allowed more than three runs in an outing the entire season and has pitched at least 4 innings in every start.
 
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