La Crosse, Wis. - The Midwest Collegiate Conference baseball tournament begins this Friday (May 7^th) in Waterloo, Iowa as the Viterbo University V-Hawks earned the No. 3 seed and will face Grand View University on Sunday, May 9^th.

Three teams automatically earned a spot in the tournament as Grand View and Iowa Wesleyan joined the V-Hawks as the teams which qualified for the tournament. A four-team play-in tournament will decide the fourth and final team in the tournament as William Penn University will play Clarke College while Mount Mercy College will face Saint Ambrose University with the winner of these two games squaring off for the final spot in the double-elimination tournament.

Grand View earned the overall No. 1 seed as they owned the head-to-head tiebreaker over Iowa Wesleyan who they finished regular season co-conference champions with.

Viterbo heads in to Sunday's game with Grand View having just recently played the Vikings in a three-game series to finish off both teams conference seasons. Grand View took two out of three in the series as the V-Hawks were able to avoid the sweep with a 7-4 win in game three. The Vikings won the first two contests by scores of 8-6 and 7-1.

The Vikings have been led this season by a core of players who are each batting above the .300 mark. These players include: Kyler Morgan (.333), Marc Mericle (.324), Cory Burnes (.321), Jeff Brooks (.319), and Chris Cutler (.300). Burns recorded the most hits (51) of all Vikings while he also led the team in RBI with 30 while he was second on the team with four home runs.

The Vikings are also led by a solid pitching staff of which seven players have made 10 or more appearances. Leading the team in wins is Jared Meggison who holds a 5-3 record while also pitching the most innings (55.2) and recording the most strikeouts (35) of all Viking pitchers.

Grand View finished the season with a 17-7 MCC record and a 26-17 overall record. The Vikings went on a tear towards the end of the conference season as they have won seven of their last eight games.

Viterbo heads in to Sundays contest against Grand View having won just one of their last four games. However, before the series last week against Grand View, the V-Hawks had won their last five games including a three-game sweep against William Penn University.

The V-Hawks offensive production has also been spread out this season as Viterbo has eight every day players batting above a .300 average. Brandon Buelow (Jr. - Milwaukee, Wis.) is making the most out of his first year with the V-Hawks as he leads the team in average, runs, hits, home runs, and RBI (.403, 44 R, 64 H, 10 HR, 42 RBI).

Tied for second most hits on the team is Brett Moravec (Jr. - Boulder City, Nev.) and Eli Tupuola (Sr. - San Diego, Calif.) who each have 51 hits. Tupuola has also struck out just nine times in 154 at-bats.

Leading the V-Hawk pitching staff this season with five wins is Howard Heinrich (Jr. - Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.). Heinrich possesses a 4.96 ERA while holding team-highs in both innings pitched (61.2) and strikeouts (51). He has also pitched two complete game shutouts this season while being named MCC Pitcher of the Week once.

Drew Farrell (Jr. - Middleton, Wis.) has also been a key contributor on the mound this season as he holds a team best 4.02 ERA and remains unblemished in the win-loss column sporting a 2-0 record.

The winner of the Viterbo and Grand View game will go on to play the winner of Iowa Wesleyan and the play-in game winner at 7:00 pm on Sunday while the loser will have to wait until Monday to play the loser of the before mentioned Iowa Wesleyan game.

The double-elimination tournament will conclude on Tuesday night at 5:00 pm with a potential game at the conclusion if the loser still has not accumulated two losses. The winner of the MCC tournament championship will earn the MCC's automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament which opens May 18^th.