(cover photo of Catholic OF Sammy Burman courtesy of Catholic University)

Well, a busy season at the Division 3 level has reached its final chapter. Many seasons have come to a close, dreams and careers have ended, and a select few remain with a shot at a national title.

Delco will be lighter on representatives compared to last year. Of our seventy-eight players on a D3 roster this year, only nine have made the postseason spread across four teams.

That doesn’t mean we will not see some of these teams make runs like last year. There are some really talented rosters coming up that all have a good chance to win a few postseason games.

Division Three regionals kick off on Friday. While there will be a lot of action across the country, here are the teams with Delco guys that we think you should watch.

Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets

We start off with a familiar face in the D3 postseason scene. Randolph-Macon was one of our teams to follow last year and while they were slightly overshadowed by the Misericordia run, the Yellow Jackets also made a run to the World Series.

They’re back again and as strong as ever. Randolph-Macon went 30-15 this year, finishing second in the always strong ODAC and making it to the tournament championship game before falling to Lynchburg.

The Yellow Jackets are also hosting a regional for the first time ever. D3 works a little weird with the hosting sites so they are not the top seed (that honor goes to SUNY Brockport), but do get the advantage of being at home.

Jon Quici is our lone representative on the Randolph-Macon roster. The Conestoga grad is a regular in the RMC lineup, starting forty-three games and hitting .304. Quici added six doubles, two triples, twenty-nine RBIs, and had a .772 OPS.

The sophomore was fantastic in the field as well. Quici only made one error across 124 total chances for a .992 fielding percentage.

Expect to see Jon up in his fair share of important spots as well. He’s been hitting around fifth or sixth in the lineup so that should come with some chances to drive in runs.

Some other players to watch in the Yellow Jacket lineup are Carter Schmitt and Chaz Harvey. They typically hit second and third in the lineup and have done damage this year; Schmitt leads RMC starters in batting average at .384 and Harvey leads the team in home runs with nine.

On the pitching side, they seem to have three strong starters in William Wian, Peter Phillips, and Bere Bauers (sick name). Sam Slevin is back as their closer/late inning guy and has seen action in twenty six games. Michael Shanahan also has a lot of high leverage experience, pitching in twenty-one games. 

If the conference tournament is any indication, Shelvin and Shanahan will be busy in the regionals. Both threw in four of the five games Randolph-Macon played in the double elimination portion.

While he isn’t a Delco guy, James Baffone was a Delco League player. He and Quici both played for Chester this past summer. Baffone is an infielder for Randolph-Macon and should also see some time in the regionals. He started twenty-nine games this year and hit .320.

Randolph-Macon starts off with third seed Messiah in the regionals. They went 31-14 this year and won the MAC Commonwealth. These two met earlier in the year as well, with RMC taking a non-conference series win in late February.

Evan Wagaman will be a guy this Yellow Jacket pitching staff needs to watch out for. He hit .340 on the year with eleven doubles, six triples, ten home runs, and fifty-five RBIs.

This is a very winnable regional for Randolph-Macon, especially with them being at home. Messiah is strong but the Yellow Jackets have beaten them already this season. SUNY Brockport will be even tougher; they have one of the best records in the country at 36-3-2 but, in my opinion, it came against lesser competition than what RMC has faced.

I feel good about Randolph-Macon’s chances to advance to the super regional round and maybe even beyond.

Keystone Giants

Another postseason regular is the Keystone Giants. I think I called them the Bombers a couple times in last year’s preview so I apologize and will get it right this time.

Keystone enters the regionals off their insane twentieth straight conference championship. They went 35-9 this year and swept through the United East tournament, beating Penn State – Harrisburg to take the crown.

Darren Hagan is the lone Delco guy on the team but should be one of their main contributors. Hagan, a Garnet Valley alum, was banged up to start the year but made it back in time to pick up thirty-one starts.

In those starts, Hagan hit .331 with seven doubles, two triples, two home runs, and twenty-seven RBI. The senior had an on-base percentage of .409 and also added seventeen stolen bases.

Hagan has been strong in the field as well, with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage as Keystone’s starting center fielder. Expect to see him out there almost the entire regional and to be hitting around the six/seven spot in the lineup.

There are some absolute dudes in this Keystone lineup. I counted eleven guys that have received regular playing time who are hitting over .300.

Leading this deep offense is Andy Rivas and Chase Boyle. Rivas was the United East tournament MVP and hit .458 with twelve home runs and fifty-eight RBIs. Boyle hit .423 on the year with thirty-three RBIs.

Not to be outdone by those two are Robert Estrada, Nate Ewing, and Carlos Pascual, who all have started over forty games and hit over .350. 

Keystone is not all offense either. None of their three main starters have lost a game this year. 

Sean Brennan was the United East Pitcher of the Year and was 9-0 with a 2.65 ERA. Quinn Holt was 5-0 with a 3.40 ERA. He struck out forty-seven batters in forty-five innings and has a fastball that can get to the mid to upper nineties. Leam Powell rounds out the starting staff; he was 7-0 in nine starts and had a 4.24 ERA.

The Giants are the two seed in the Granville, Ohio regional, hosted by Denison. They will start out with the third seed, Penn State – Behrend.

I imagine Keystone will feel comfortable playing a Penn State branch campus. The Giants are 10-1 this year against them, the only loss coming to Penn State – Abington in March.

Behrend may be the best of them, though. They went 30-9 on the way to winning the AMCC. Mac Ciocco is a guy to watch for the Nittany Lions, he hit .455 with forty-two RBIs this year.

Keystone has a good chance to pick up a few wins in this regional. Getting past the top seed Denison may be a tall task though.

The Big Red went 35-5 this year and spent a decent amount of time as the number one team in the country. They have yet to lose to a ranked opponent and are winners of fourteen straight. Denison can hit, pitch, field… you name it.

Upsets happen all the time, and this Keystone team is more than talented enough to pull one, but being drawn in a regional with one of the favorites to win the whole thing is tough. Either way, it will be fun to see how the Giants do.

Catholic Cardinals

Alright as an Etown alum, this one stings a bit but it has to be done. I present to you our team with the most Delco representation, the Catholic Cardinals.

Catholic had an up and down regular season but caught fire when it mattered most. Shockingly in danger of missing the Landmark playoffs, they won their last six regular season conference games and rolled through the tournament, going 4-0. 

The Cardinals earned their spot in the NCAA tournament with a 5-3 win against Scranton and now have a 27-16 record going into the regionals.

We have quite a few familiar faces as Catholic rosters six players from Delco. You can expect to see a lot of them on the field as well, the Cardinals wouldn’t be here without a few of the guys we’ll talk about.

Sammy Burman was one of the leaders on Catholic’s offense. The junior had the second highest batting average on the team, hitting .361 with ten doubles, two triples, four home runs, and 36 RBIs. Burman is getting on base almost half the time he steps to the plate; his OBP is .443.

We’ll see a lot of the Friends Central graduate and Wallingford native in the outfield. Burman starts in center field and usually hits somewhere in the middle of the order for Catholic.

Another regular starter on offense is Archbishop Carroll grad Jack Bateman. Bateman, a sophomore in his first year at Catholic after a year at Holy Cross, started to earn a lot of playing time around the middle of the year and has stuck in the lineup. 

Bateman has been playing a lot of third base. He’s hitting a modest .226 but has shown some power, with four home runs on the year. Jack has been hitting well recently though and picked up a couple of clutch RBIs for the Cardinals in close wins in the Landmark tournament.

Roman Tozzi is back at the top of the pitching rotation again this year. The Preseason All-American got off to a bit of a tough start, but is playing his best baseball now, racking up some really good starts ahead of the regional round.

Tozzi, a Carroll alum like Bateman, is 6-2 on the year with a 3.76 ERA and will likely be taking the mound in either the first or second game this weekend. If he stays hot, Catholic can beat anyone in a game he pitches.

Jack Scholz surprised us by pitching as much as he has this year. The freshman was primarily a second baseman in his high school years at Lower Merion but has pitched in about every situation you could think of this year.

Scholz started getting some time out of the bullpen early, transitioned to starting some games and even picked up a win, and has now seemingly gone back to the bullpen, pitching some high leverage innings. In three appearances in the Landmark tournament, he pitched three scoreless innings and picked up two saves.

Overall, Scholz is 1-1 with a 4.13 ERA and five saves. He’ll most likely be crucial out of the bullpen for the Cardinals over the weekend.

Nico Tozzi (Penncrest) and Ryan Kearney (Bonner) are both on the Catholic roster as well. Unfortunately, neither saw too much playing time this spring but will be along for hopefully a solid playoff run.

If I didn’t give you enough to follow already, some other guys to watch in the lineup are Steve Thomas, Dante Pozzi, and Mitchel Johnson.

Thomas has arguably been Catholic’s best hitter all year. He hit .382 with seventeen doubles, three triples, three home runs, and thirty-three RBIs. Thomas has also been playing the leadoff role as well as anyone, getting on base 49.5% of the time.

Pozzi has been a mainstay in the Catholic lineup for a few years and was as good as ever in 2025. He hit .331 in the middle of the order and picked up eleven doubles, a triple, four home runs, and forty-three RBIs.

Johnson is the main power threat for the Cardinals. He leads the team with ten home runs this year and has picked up forty-two RBIs as well.

On the mound, Cody Bosak was one of the best starters in the Landmark, going 5-0 in eleven starts with a 2.89 ERA. Sam Fairhurst was also very impressive, going 6-1 with a 3.19 and leading the team with sixty-five strikeouts.

There are a good amount of Philly area guys on this Catholic team and hopefully playing at the former home of Eagles head coach, Nick Sirianni, gives them a boost. The Cardinals are the third seed in a regional hosted by Sirianni’s alma mater, Mount Union. 

The hosts will be Catholics first opponent, as they are the two seed. The Raiders went 27-11 this year. An 0-2 showing in the OAC tournament did not stop them from earning an at-large bid, though, and Mount Union will be looking for a better performance in the regionals.

Mount Union will be very strong overall. Seven starters hit over .300 and they look to have a really deep pitching staff, with three or four solid starters and a lot of good bullpen options.

Jaired Lehman looks like a player to watch for the Raiders. He led the team in batting, hitting .385, and also has seven starts with a 2.97 ERA on the hill.

Rowan is the top seed in this regional. A perennial contender, the Profs went 31-10 this year and also picked up an at-large bid. The feature a lineup, led by Nick Struble, that features nine hitters batting over .300 and another deep pitching staff.

Just looking at the stats, I think depth, especially in the bullpen, could present an issue for Catholic as they get further into these games. At the same time, this team is playing its best baseball and when you’re this hot, sometimes you can throw numbers out the window.

Others to watch

There are a couple other teams playing in the D3 tournament that have, but do not really feature, Delco talent.

Case Western Reserve is a top seed and regional host. They went 27-12-1 over a really tough schedule and have their eyes set on making another World Series run.

Former Harriton standout Ross Brotherston is a freshman infielder for CWRU but has not seen much time. Brotherston has played in one game, getting an at-bat against New York University in April. 

Nick Harms and Dane Camphausen are probably two of the better hitters in the tournament overall and are definitely dudes worth paying attention to. Harms leads the team in average, hitting .395, and has twelve home runs as well. Camphausen is the home run leader for Case Western, blasting seventeen out this year.

Jason Bennett (Marple) and Matt Kane (Strath Haven) are freshmen at previously mentioned Rowan. Both are redshirts though so we don’t plan on seeing either of them.

While it is not D3, I wanted to give a quick shoutout to our two JUCO guys and multiple club baseball guys still playing. Tommy Bradley is a freshman at 47-4, defending NJCAA D3 champion, RCSJ Gloucester. Bradley is a relief pitcher for the Roadrunners, who began play in the Region 19 D3 final four on Thursday. The Bonner grad has thirteen appearances on the year and could see some time as Gloucester goes for another national title.

When he’s not working as one of our fantastic interns, Mark Zuppo has been putting up numbers as a freshman infielder for Lackawanna CC. The Garnet Valley alum missed a lot of time to start the year due to injury, but has worked his way into the Falcon lineup.

Zuppo is hitting .323 with a double, triple, and six RBIs on the year. He started every game of the Region 19 D2 tournament that Lackawanna won and will play a big role as the Falcons look to win the NJCAA East District championship this weekend.

In the club baseball world, Zach Taylor (Chichester), Brendan Liney (Haverford) and Kevin McGuire (O’Hara) will begin the NCBA D2 World Series on Friday as West Chester looks to win their second title in a row. Taylor and Liney were on the squad last year, McGuire is a freshman.

Penn State will look to win their third straight National Championship, the first of which DBN President Brendan Ricciardi was a part of, and have six Delco guys on their roster. Owen Mathes (Marple Newtown) and Pat Mannix (Radnor) are both typical starters in the infield. Drew Lamonica (Conestoga) is a center field that starts a good amount of games. Austin Marx (Radnor) is one of the top relievers out of the bullpen.

Justin Brennan (Marple Newtown) and Joe McGinnis (Broomall/SJP) are also in the bullpen and have not been featured as much this year, though Brennan got an inning in regionals.

Good luck to all of our guys, and we hope to be writing some more of these articles soon.