North Penn Grad Danny Kirwin Headed To NCAA Baseball Tournament

LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP, NJ —North Penn grad Danny Kirwin is headed to the NCAA Baseball Tournament. The junior relief pitcher is a member of the Rider University baseball team that clinched a spot in the tournament by upsetting No. 1 seed Fairfield to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Tournament title last Friday.

"It's a special day for Rider," Broncs head coach Barry Davis said Friday after No. 3 seed Rider beat Fairfield 7-2 to win the third MAAC tournament title in program history, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Broncs (23-16) head to Ruston, Louisiana this weekend to compete in the NCAA Regional. At 7 p.m. Central on Friday, they face host Louisiana Tech in the opener of a double-elimination weekend series. Alabama and North Carolina State are the other teams in the regional.

Kirwin, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound righty, has been a key contributor out of the bullpen for Rider. He pitched a key inning of scoreless ball in the Broncs' 4-2 win over Canisius in a MAAC Tournament game on May 27. In a first-round conference tournament series game against Niagara on May 20, Kirwin threw two scoreless, and hitless, innings in a 12-4 win.

For the season, Kirwin is 2-0 with a 5.57 ERA. His 11 appearances, all in relief, are second on the team, and he is fifth on the team with 23 strikeouts.

In high school, Kirwin was a four-year member of the North Penn Knights varsity baseball team. As a junior, he earned first-team all-conference and second-team All-Southeastern Pennsylvania honors.

North Penn grad Joe Valenti had a fine sophomore season at Division III Misericordia University. Valenti, a 5-10 lefty, went 3-1 with a 3.24 ERA, making 13 appearances, five of them starts.

The Cougars went 31-10 and reached the NCAA Division III Tournament, but were eliminated in last weekend's St. Paul (MN) Regional.