This week’s PSAC Baseball Tournament at Kelly Automotive Park definitely has a local feel to it.

The eight-team, double-elimination tournament gets under way at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday when Slippery Rock University faces West Chester.

All four of the tourney entrants from the PSAC West — regular season champion Mercyhurst (32-6), Seton Hill (39-9), SRU (29-16) and California (24-20) — have Butler County high school graduates playing key roles on those respective squads.

“There is incredible balance in this league and we’ve had phenomenal pitching,” PSAC Commissioner Steve Murray said. “The key will be the first game for just about everybody.

“You could throw your ace the first day, lose 1-0, then where are you?”

Following the SRU-West Chester (26-11) match-up, East Stroudsburg (28-17) faces Mercyhurst at 12:30 p.m., Shippensburg (25-23) takes on Seton Hill at 3:30 p.m. and California tangles with Millersville (38-9) at 6:30 p.m.

Mercyhurst features Freeport graduate and senior outfielder Ryan Siegel, who is hitting .299 with 11 stolen bases, and Butler graduate and starting pitcher Colin McKee. He is sporting a 5-2 record with a 2.43 earned run average, good for third best in the PSAC.

McKee also has 58 strikeouts in 40.2 innings pitched.

Butler graduate Cody Herald is a senior right fielder for Seton Hill and is hitting .312 with eight homers and 36 RBI.

Butler grad Mick Fennell starts in center field for California and is hitting .413 for the Vulcans with seven homers, 28 RBI, seven triples and 14 stolen bases. Fennell has struck out only seven times in 160 at bats. Fellow former Golden Tornado Alex Ziegler is 4-0 on the mound for the Vulcans, sporting a 2.81 ERA and two saves.

Finally, Seneca Valley graduate Carson Kessler is hitting .333 as a utility player for SRU, one of 10 players on The Rock roster hitting above .300 with more than 50 at bats.

“Offensively, this may be the most productive year we’ve ever had,” SRU coach Jeff Messer said. “Carson is right in that mix. He’s a hitter who’s been squaring the ball up really well.”

After hitting 12 home runs all of last season, The Rock has drilled 61 homers this spring. Freshman catcher Tyler Walters leads the way with 12 while outfielder Logan Brown has 10.

Center fielder Adam Urbania has hit eight homers and carries a .442 batting average with a PSAC-leading 73 hits. He is also riding a 32-game hitting streak, longest in NCAA Division II this season.

“He’s been incredible,” Messer said. “Teams try to pitch around him, but we hit him in the No. 3 hole, so that’s tough to do.”

Home runs are up throughout the PSAC and collegiate baseball in general this season. The baseball no longer has raised seams, which has added carry to long fly balls.

“They did a study at Stanford on the effect and the ball is traveling 10 to 12 feet farther once it gets out by the warning track,” Messer said. “It’s been a factor in our increased power, certainly, but this is the windiest spring I can remember for our hitters having the wind at their backs, too.

“Our weight training program runs all year, too, and our hitters have gotten stronger. I think it’s a combination of all of those things.”

Murray believes the baseball has had too much of an impact on the college game.

“One league down south hit 40 home runs last weekend,” Murray said. “I’m not sure if I like this. There’s too many balls leaving the park.”

Messer expects a few to be leaving Kelly Automotive Park over the weekend.

“The park plays bigger and I don’t know what the wind will be like,” he admitted.”But Seton Hill’s got some big power guys, so do we and a few others ... Some balls will be flying out of there.”

The PSAC Tournament runs through Saturday and will feature roughly 15 games in four days.

Such a schedule makes Murray grateful to Butler.

“They roll out the red carpet for us there and we appreciate that,” he said. “With the volume of schedule we play over those four days, we need an artificial turf field.

“With any kind of bad weather, a grass field would never stand up to it. Whoever comes out of this tournament should be well-prepared for the NCAA Tournament. This should be a good show.”

The PSAC tourney will feature 17 former or future Butler BlueSox players. Seton Hill has six former BlueSox players while California has four.