Mifflin grad Connor Maryniak moving up after earning national honors, World Series title
National Player of the Year honors and a Division III World Series championship were just what Connor Maryniak needed to boost his baseball career.
The Gov. Mifflin graduate has announced he is transferring to the University of North Carolina Charlotte, a Division I program which competes in the American Athletic Conference.
Maryniak played for Division III Misericordia the last three seasons.
“I thank God for blessing me with this opportunity and putting me in this position to be able to play the game I love at the highest level,” Maryniak wrote on Twitter. “I’m fired up to join the UNC Charlotte program.”
Maryniak, a shortstop and pitcher, capped his junior season with recognition as the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings Division III National Player of the Year.
Maryniak — who led his team to a national championship — was one of just nine players selected across all divisions of amateur baseball.
He tied the program record by starting all 55 games, including 42 at shortstop, while setting single-season records with 70 RBI and 130 total bases and tying the school record with 13 homers. He was fourth on the team in batting (.345) and led the team with a .631 slugging percentage.
“To Coach Egbert and Misericordia Baseball, thank you for playing such a big role in my life and shaping me into the baseball player and man that I am today,” Maryniak wrote on Twitter. “I am forever grateful.”
Maryniak joins a Charlotte program coming off a 23-34 season, off a level from its recent success.
In 2023 the 49ers won 36 games to make it three consecutive seasons with 35-plus wins and picked up the first Conference USA Tournament Championship in program history. They made a Regional for the second time in three years and reached the Regional Final for just the second time in program history after eliminating No. 3-ranked Clemson in an elimination game.
Charlotte won seven consecutive elimination games, rattling off five wins in four days to take home the C-USA Tournament Title after losing the first game.
Charlotte’s 2023 team set a program record with 64 games played. The Niners hit 103 home runs to cross the century mark for just the second time in program history.
Maryniak was the only two-way player named to the d3baseballl.com All-American team, announced last month.
Maryniak was the Berks Player of the Year as a senior in 2021 after going 13-0 on the mound batting .393.
