West Windsor, N.J. -- The athletic teams at Mercer County Community College are nearing the post season and ready for action. MCCC softball is set to begin their Region 19 Tournament on Saturday, Apr. 30 as the No. 5 seed. The Vikings will face the No. 4 seed, Del Tech Stanton, at home for a best-of-three play-in series. The winner will advance to the Region 19 Final Four, which will be played May 7-8 at the County College of Morris. MCCC split with Del Tech Stanton on April 21, losing the first game 4-3 and winning the second game 2-0. The Vikings are currently 21-13.

The Lady Vikings, under Head Coach Ryan Zegarski, have been anchored by freshman Angela Marinos (Hamilton, NJ/Steinert High School), who leads the team with a .480 batting average, 34 RBIs, 47 hits and 31 runs scored. Four other players are batting above .300, including Brittany Szafran (Ewing, NJ/Ewing High School), hitting .390; Mary Rossi (Trenton, NJ/Notre Dame High School), close behind at .386; Ryan Niatas (Levittown, PA/Conwell-Egan High School), hitting .373; and Kirsten Edinger (Ewing, NJ/Ewing High School), hitting .305. On the mound for the Vikings is freshman Brianna Byrne (East Windor, NJ/Hightstown High School), who is 13-9 with a 1.90 ERA.

In men's tennis action, MCCC will host the Region 19 Men's Tennis Tournament at the Mercer County Park Tennis Center Apr. 29-30. Six teams, including Brookdale, Bergen, Gloucester, Mercer, Ocean and Williamson Trade, will compete to finish in the top three overall to advance to the NJCAA Division III National Tournament May 14-20 in Plano, TX. The MCCC men's team finished second in the Region 19 Tournament last year and fifth at the national championship.

The Vikings are 9-6 overall as they head into the tournament. According to Head Coach Marc Vecchiolla, Brookdale and Gloucester will likely prove to be the toughest competition for MCCC, which lost to both schools this season. Vecchiolla is expecting big performances from second doubles partners, sophomores Travis McCaughan (Princeton, NJ/Lawrence High School) and Juan Ramirez (Pennington, NJ/Hightstown High School), who lost only one regular season match in the region. McCaughan has also had a successful season at fourth singles with only one regional loss. Two other players, Travis Virgil (East Windsor, NJ/Hightstown High School) at fifth singles and Adam Czaplinski (Lawrenceville, NJ/Lawrence) at sixth singles have also had only one loss in regional matches this season.

The Mercer baseball team continues its regular season through May 4. MCCC hosts the Region 19 tournament, scheduled for May 13-15. (The play-in round will be played May 7-8.) The team's current record is 16-13.

For more on the teams and game results visit:

MCCC Softball

MCCC Men's Tennis

MCCC Baseball

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