The first semester of the 2025–2026 school year has come and gone, and with that comes the spring semester and all the sports that come with it. The Eastern baseball team is looking to improve on a 17–23 record, including an 8–13 conference record, which led to a fifth-place finish in the MAC Commonwealth last spring.
Dating back to 2021, the Eagles have not placed higher than fifth in the MAC Commonwealth overall standings, a testament to how this program has grown under head coach Scott Renauro, who has been at the helm of Eastern baseball since 2018. The Eagles want to build on the progress of the last two years’ success and claim a spot in the MAC Commonwealth tournament. Assistant Coach Luca Marinucci said, “Our main goal for this season is to come out and win. We had a taste of winning in 2024 when we had over a .500 winning percentage, and are looking to get back to that point and beyond now that we can have home games again. The dream scenario would be a home playoff series.”
Coach Marinucci also said, “The group of players we have for this season is the most talented and dedicated I have seen in my time here. A lot of our improvement can be attributed to the resources we were blessed with. We have a large and knowledgeable coaching staff, giving us the chance to work with our guys more individually than we have in the past.”
The Eagles open their non-conference play the weekend of February 20 at Gwynedd Mercy University, and then return home for a two-game series against Lancaster Bible College on the 21. The Eagles will play their first official games at home at The Yard after having to play off campus all of last year due to construction.
The Eagles will open their conference schedule March 13 and 14 with a three-game series against York. The Eagles will play a three-game conference series against their seven other MAC Commonwealth opponents: Alvernia University, York College, Messiah University, Widener University, Hood College, Albright College and Stevenson University, and will add MAC Freedom contests against Delaware Valley University and Lebanon Valley College. The Eagles will also play non-conference opponents such as Swarthmore College, Penn State York, Rosemont College, Neumann University, Muhlenberg College, Washington College, Notre Dame of Maryland and Haverford College.
The Eagles can circle the three-game series against Messiah from April 17 and 18, as this is likely to be the toughest challenge on the schedule. Messiah went 39–16 last year with an 18–3 conference record en route to a MAC Commonwealth title. The Eagles were swept by Messiah last year, losing 0–11, 2–4 and 6–7, respectively. The Eagles will also have tough conference series against York and Alvernia, the runner-up and third-place teams, respectively. The Eagles lost the series with York last year, winning one game out of three. They were also swept by Alvernia in three games. The Eagles will look to capture some of these key games as they look to improve their conference record from last year. Marinucci said, “Every conference game is important, so we certainly have an extra edge going into them.”
The Eagles can look forward to big contributions from key returners from last year, including a class of 12 listed senior players. The Eagles have three returning players who were All-Conference selections last year: junior infielder Matthew Gonglik, senior outfielder Thomas Kozlusky and senior utilityman Luke Meehan. Meehan also earned an All-Region nod from the ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Team for Region 5, as well as earning an Academic All-MAC honor.
In essence, the Eastern baseball squad has an upcoming season full of anticipation and excitement as they battle through a challenging schedule and hope to contend for a MAC Commonwealth tournament appearance later this spring. They can rely on key returners who made an impact last season to help lead this squad to its goals, and they will have the whole EU home crowd behind them when they play their first official games back at The Yard.
