This Week: Notre Dame College will play in the Mountain East Conference Tournament in Beckley, W.Va. this week. The Falcons first game of the tournament will be against Concord tomorrow, May 9, at 7 p.m. Matchups are not yet set for Friday, but all teams will play on day two as the tournament is double elimination. The tournament will continue on Saturday and Sunday until a champion is crowned.

Records: Notre Dame is 25-25 (19-13 MEC) after winning three of four against Urbana last week. The Falcons earned the No. 2 seed in the North Division. Concord is the No. 2 seed in the South Division with a 33-15 (21-11 MEC) record. The Mountain Lions are currently on a five-game win streak.

Coaches Corner: Len Barker is in his eighth season as the head coach at Notre Dame. Barker is 177-210, 114-89 MEC. Kevin Garrett is in his 19th season at the helm of the Concord team. Garrett spent 1996-2010 with the Mountain Lions and returned to the program in 2016. He has a record of 463-341 (75-53 MEC) in his time at CU.

Rankings: None of the other teams competing this week were ranked in the May 7 National College Baseball Writers' Association Poll. Shepherd is the No. 8 team in the most recent Atlantic Region Rankings.  

Series History: Notre Dame is 6-14 against Concord and split the series with the Mountain Lions earlier this season. The Falcons lost game one 12-2 before winning game two 6-3.

Tournament History: NDC has an overall record of 7-8 at the MEC Tournament. The Falcons have made the tournament four times previous to this year's berth. In 2014, Notre Dame won three games to make it to the championship game. Last season, the team went 2-2 and played in the semifinal. Notre Dame has twice played Concord in the tournament, in 2014 and 2015, and have lost both contests.

Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame will be playing its third night game of the season on Thursday and its eighth game of the year that will last at least nine innings. Heading into the tournament the Falcons are 1-1 in evening games. The Falcons defeated Wayne State and lost to Sioux Falls. Both of those contests were played in Florida. In games that have gone nine or more innings, NDC is 4-3. Notre Dame started the season off strong in these games with two wins over Indianapolis in extra innings and wins against Wayne State and Ashland in Florida. Since those four wins, the Falcons have lost twice to Mercyhurst, who was ranked in the top 10 in both games, and once at Lake Erie. The full nine-inning games played in the tournament might favor the Falcons as the only innings they have outscored opponents this season are seven, eight, nine and extra innings. In those innings after the sixth, NDC has 40 runs compared to its opponents 24.

Noting the Mountain Lions: The Notre Dame pitching staff will have its hand full against Concord in their first game. Of their eight qualifying batters, the Mountain Lions lowest batting average from a player is Adam Linkous, who still holds an average of .308. From there, the averages just grow, all the way to Ryan Fralin, who leads the team with a .393 average. Right up there with Fralin is Evan Webb with a .392 average. Tyler Gault was able to hold this potent offense to just three runs in his start against CU. Gault was able to earn a complete game win with just two earned runs against him.