(cover photo of Mike Valente via Cal U Baseball)

The NCAA Division II Tournament will be getting started on Thursday, and we have a good amount of Delco representation in the tournament.

Most of those come in the PSAC, with guys on West Chester, Cal U, Seton Hill, and Millersville, which we will break down in a second here.

The NCAA DII Tournament is pretty similar to the DI Tournament, there are just 56 teams as oppposed to 64 for some reason.

Each team will participate in a regional tournament; some of these tournaments have three teams, some have four.

If you win that tournament, you advance to Super Regionals, which is a very simple best-of-three series where the winner advances to the eight-team World Series which is hosted as always by the USA Baseball Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.

REGIONALS: May 15-18

SUPER REGIONALS: May 22 – 24

WORLD SERIES: May 30 – June 7

Let’s take a look at who of our local guys will be participating in the tournament, and what their roles may be.

WARNING: These brackets are kind of confusing for the three team ones.

ATLANTIC REGIONAL #1

Michael Costello, #1 Millersville (Penncrest)

Costello, a redshirt sophomore, hasn’t been too involved in the Marauders pitching staff so far this year.

He has not appeared in a game since 4/13 against Mansfield where he threw a scoreless inning, so there may be some type of injury that he is dealing with as well.

Millersville won the PSAC Tournament and are a whopping 42-8 on the season. It’s a bit of an odd bracket format, as you can see above, but they will be competing against #4 Cal U and #5 Seton Hill for the right to advance to Super Regionals, which they would host if they win.

To put this bracket in simpler terms, if Millersville wins their first game, they will be in a best-of-three series with either Cal U or Seton Hill for the right to go to Super Regionals.

If they lose their first game, they will need to win three in a row to get there.

At this point it feels unlikely that we will see Costello pitch — especially if he is in fact hurt — but these long tournaments make you use all the pitching you have, so you never know.

Mike Valente (Strath Haven) and Ikon Jones (Sun Valley), #4 Cal U

While Costello was not a huge factor in Millersville getting this far, the same can not be said for Mike Valente and Ikon Jones.

Valente, a junior RHP who also was the Delco League Cy Young winner in 2024 with Wayne, went a perfect 10-0 in the regular season with ten starts and a 2.31 ERA.

He got a no decision in a PSAC Tournament start against West Chester where he allowed three earned runs in 6.1 innings of work. He came back on two days rest after throwing 86 pitches to face Millersville in the PSAC Championship and it did not go very well, allowing five runs in one inning.

That was certainly an uncharacteristic performance and not entirely surprising given how quickly he came back, but Valente should be ready to go in the PSAC Tournament on Thursday if he were to be called upon. Even after that outing, he still has a 3.15 ERA on the season and likely be starting a game at some point in this regional.

As for Ikon Jones, the sophomore outfielder took a great freshman season where he hit .299 and turned in an even better sophomore season, hitting .327 with an OPS of .904. He added six doubles, four triples, and two homers in that time.

Jones is swinging a good bat lately, going 5/9 in the last three games and has hits in six of the last seven. He will be a big part of the Vulcans looking to upset Millersville and keep their season alive.

Sean Williams (Springfield), #5 Seton Hill

After being a First Team All Delco selection for us last year, Sean Williams has thrown 12.2 innings as a freshman reliever for Seton Hill.

He had some tough luck in the PSAC Tournament when he faced Millersville and came into pitch in the top of the 13th, where he allowed three unearned runs to score in a 5-2 loss.

He only has two appearances since April 2nd, but like we mentioned with Costello, these tournaments can really tax your pitching staff and you need to have everyone available. There’s a very good chance we see Williams at some point, especially if the Griffins are trying to fight through the loser’s bracket at some point.

ATLANTIC REGIONAL #2

Kyle Lazer (Bonner), Casey Vaughan (Springfield), Evan Wineburg (Carroll), #2 West Chester

West Chester is in the same exact situation as Millersville, just with a separate group of teams. If they simply go 3-0, they will make super regionals. They would play the winner of Millersville’s regional.

This team has the most Delco guys of any of our D2 squads.

Bonner alum and senior RHP Kyle Lazer has been a force at the top of the rotation for the Golden Rams. Lazer has had an interesting path to get to this point:

2022: Had a 2.80 ERA as a freshman reliever

2023: Missed the season due to Tommy John surgery

2024: Returned to the field as a reliever with a 4.08 ERA

2025: Started 12 games with a 3.13 ERA and went 8-2 with four complete games.

After not starting a single game in his first three years, he stepped into be one of the aces of the staff and is a big reason that the team is 35-15.

Lazer did not pitch in the PSAC Tournament, likely because he pitched the weekend before, but should certainly pitch in this regional tournament barring injury.

Redshirt senior Casey Vaughan has been a big part of the Golden Rams team on the offensive side of the ball. The infielder has hit .307 this year with 11 doubles, four triples, and 23 RBI. He has an OPS of .871, so he’s really been a good player for them this season. He’s also a switch hitter and typically hits fifth.

Wrapping up our guys on the list we have Carroll alum Evan Wineburg, who has been continuing to get more innings out of the bullpen as the season has progressed.

The Junior RHP has a 2.25 ERA through 20 innings pitched and recently threw four shutout innings of relief against Mansfield. 

Wineburg threw an inning of relief in the PSAC Tournament loss to Cal U, so it seems there is a very strong chance we could see him at some point in regionals.

EAST REGIONAL 1:

Will Hoffman (Haverford), #1 Jefferson

After graduating from Haveford in 2024, Will Hoffman has thrown ten innings out of the bullpen for the Jefferson Rams this year.

He had a 1.93 through his first seven outings before a rough last appearance had that shoot up, but he has overall been very reliable this year. The Rams are 38-15 on the year and went 27-7 in their conference.

It doesn’t seem likely that Hoffman will be getting high leverage innings in the tournament, but like we’ve said all along, you need all the pitching you can get in tournaments like this. There’s always someone who steps up that you don’t expect.

Jefferson will await the loser of Goldy-Beacom and Franklin-Pierce as they are in the same boat as Millersville and West Chester.

EAST REGIONAL #2:

CJ Nocella (Bonner), #2 Wilmington

CJ Nocella hasn’t been given too many opportunities in his first year after graduating from Bonner, but he certainly took advantage of those.

Nocella hit .588 this year going 10/17 with a double and a triple. He has certainly shown he can hit at this level, but based on only 17 AB’s, it feels pretty unlikely that we see him in the tournament. There is a chance we see him as a pinch-runner, though, as he has nine stolen bases this year.

Wilmington will be the #2 seed and host their regional, which will be a standard four-team double elimination bracket with Molloy, Felician, and Pace. Unlike the rest of the teams here, they will need to play a first round game.

They would play the winner of Jefferson’s regional if they were to win theirs.