ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team will host Union College this weekend, May 7-8, in a best-of-three Liberty League Crossover Series to begin Liberty League Championship play at Freeman Field. Saturday is a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m., with the second contest starting at approximately 4 p.m. If the teams split on Saturday, a winner-take-all contest will be played at 12 p.m. on Sunday.

COVERAGE

LIVE STATS | WEBCAST | GAME PROGRAM

ABOUT THE LIBERTY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP: The Liberty League Tournament officially begins this weekend with a three-game crossover series across the league. The two seeds in each division will host the third and fourth seeds from the opposite division. The four winners will advance to a double-elimination championship on May 12-14. Whoever wins next weekend's tournament is the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Championship.

Ithaca and Skidmore are the No. 1 seeds for the crossover weekend. Rochester and Bard are two seeds, while RIT and RPI are three seeds. Union and Clarkson are the four seeds.

ITHACA VS. UNION – THE ALL-TIME SERIES: Ithaca and Union will play as many games on Saturday as the two programs have played in the past 75 years - two. IC and Union first met back in 1947, which was an 8-4 Dutchmen win, and the two teams never played again until last spring, an 18-9 victory for Union.

ABOUT THE BOMBERS: IC is 25-11 on the season and went 13-4 overall in Liberty League play, including a 10-2 mark in West divisional games. The Bombers are batting .322 as a team, while the pitching staff hold opponents to a .260 average. The Bombers have outscored their opposition, 279-211.

Buzz Shirley leads IC with a .414 average and 36 RBI. Connor Pedersen paces the Bombers with 58 hits, while Louis Fabbo has scored 37 runs. Nicholas Cutaia (.341), Matt Fabian (.333) and Gil Merod (.315) are all batting over .300 for the Bombers this season.

Kyle Lambert has tossed 66.2 innings this season with 70 strikeouts and a 2.70 ERA. Garrett Bell is 6-0 with 33 strikeouts over 29.0 innings, while Nate Scott is 5-3 with a 3.98 ERA in 54.1 innings pitched.

SCOUTING UNION: The Dutchmen are 15-16 on the year and earned a spot in the crossover series via tiebreaker over Vassar, as both teams were 4-8 in the East. Union enters this series on a bit of a hot streak, as the Dutchmen have won five of their last seven games.

The Dutchmen hit .307 as a squad and opponents' bat .275 against their pitching staff.

Kobe Mentzer leads the team with a .366 average and 24 runs, while Jono Santos has belted seven home runs on the year with a team-high 21 RBI. Jack DiNanno is hitting .320 with five doubles and a home run, while Thomas Parisi is swinging at a .310 clip with eight doubles and two triples.

On the mound, Chris Suter is the top arm with a 3.54 ERA and 5-2 record in 40.2 innings pitched. Suter has 27 strikeouts on the year. Jason Goldblum is the go-to reliever as he has picked up six saves in 10 appearances with 16 strikeouts to just three walks in 10.0 innings pitched.