With most of its weekend starting pitching from 2025 gone, the Seton Hill University baseball team went into 2026 looking for arms to emerge.<\/p>\n
Luke Deschenes has seized his opportunity for a larger role.<\/p>\n
Deschenes, an Emmaus High School graduate, has transitioned from long reliever and spot starter to rotation mainstay as a redshirt junior. The right-hander continued his consistent pitching Friday by limiting Lock Haven to one run over six innings in a 2-1 win. The Griffins went on to sweep their four-game series, extending their PSAC West dominance.<\/p>\n
Seton Hill owns a 25-6 overall record and 12-0 PSAC West mark as it nears the midpoint of conference play. Deschenes is 3-0 with a 3.38 in PSAC West games, starting the series opener in all three of the Griffins\u2019 division series so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust knowing that I was going to take on a larger role this year, it was a bit motivating,\u201d Deschenes said by phone Monday. \u201cThat\u2019s something I definitely desired to do \u2014 play a bigger role for the team, start a bunch of games. So, it pushed me to work harder and continue all the things I\u2019ve really been doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gave me a greater sense of responsibility, a little bit more ownership, and the feeling that I could leave a bigger impact on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deschenes began preparing for a heavier workload after Seton Hill\u2019s run to a third straight NCAA Division II Atlantic Super Regional last season. He spent time training at Rockland Peak Performance in Paramus, N.J., with a focus on adding velocity and improving mobility. He also pitched in the New England Collegiate Baseball League and the Cape Cod League over the summer.<\/p>\n
Deschenes said working on his mental game mattered as much as his physical training. He wanted to prep his mind for the demands of starting and facing a lineup multiple times. He has already thrown 39 innings this season after finishing at 43 1\/3 last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was able to face some higher competition [over the summer], which I think humbled him and gave him a lot of things to learn and work on,\u201d Seton Hill coach Marc Marizzaldi said. \u201cThat was a really good experience for him that allowed him to come back here and be a more mature pitcher and maybe move from being a No. 7-8 guy on our staff to a potential No. 1 or 2 guy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to be that guy that is counted on,\u201d he added. \u201cHe wants to be that Friday night starter, that guy that\u2019s at the top of the rotation. I\u2019ve seen his confidence and maturity just grow exponentially in the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
With 3\u00bd weeks left in the regular season, Seton Hill is positioning itself for another extended postseason run. The Griffins have come within a win of the NCAA Division II World Series the past three years. Getting over the hump and winning a Super Regional is everyone\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n
Deschenes and his teammates plan to stay in the moment as they pursue their long-term goals. That means collecting PSAC West win No. 13 on Friday, with Deschenes likely to start another series opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re pitching the ball pretty well,\u201d Deschenes said. \u201cWe\u2019re hitting it exceptionally well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe very much take things game by game and series by series, but I think we have the chance to put together a pretty special season this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winning the weekend: DeSales earned a key series win over the weekend, taking two of three games from MAC Freedom Conference preseason favorite Arcadia. DeSales (17-10 overall, 10-2 MAC Freedom) limited the Knights to one run in each of the first two games before falling 11-6 in the series finale.<\/p>\n
Bulldogs graduate student Owen Fischl, a Whitehall High product, went 4-for-8 with two runs and two RBIs in the series. He\u2019s hitting a team-best .432 with a 1.073 OPS.<\/p>\n
DeSales\u2019 series win gave it sole possession of second place in the MAC Freedom Conference, one game ahead of Arcadia. The Bulldogs play a three-game series with first-place Misericordia (12-0 MAC Freedom) this week, starting with a Friday visit to the Cougars.<\/p>\n
Short hops: \u00a0East Stroudsburg (18-12 overall, 6-6 PSAC East) is 13-3 at home this season. The Warriors rebounded from their series loss to first-place West Chester by taking three of four from Bloomsburg. \u2026 Lafayette freshman Will Dobil (Parkland) clubbed his first two college home runs Saturday, hitting one in both games of a doubleheader loss to Bucknell. He went into Tuesday\u2019s game at Penn with nine RBIs in his last seven games. \u2026 Junior outfielder Zachary McElroy (Emmaus) leads Lock Haven with 14 RBIs. He has an .821 OPS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With most of its weekend starting pitching from 2025 gone, the Seton Hill University baseball team went into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2289],"tags":[5,648,1703,1694,2341,185,4802],"class_list":{"0":"post-670207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-college-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-college-baseball","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-baseball","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116369098271434716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}