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Four MAC baseball names to know heading into the final weeks

The Mid-American Conference baseball tournament starts on May 22 in Avon, Ohio. Let's take a look around the conference and finally learn a few names leading up to the tourney, as well as the conference standings.

USA TODAY Sports

MAC Standings

East
Buffalo (28-18, 15-5)
Kent St. (27-21, 14-7)
Miami (OH) (22-25, 11-10)
Bowling Green (16-24, 10-11)
Akron (12-32, 8-12)
Ohio (12-33, 7-14)

West
NIU (20-26, 14-7)
Ball St. (22-20, 11-10)
Toledo (19-26, 10-11)
Eastern Michigan (21-24, 9-12)
Central Michigan (20-25, 9-12)
Western Michigan (15-31, 7-14)

MAC standouts

Buffalo: Jason Kanzler (OF) - The speedy senior leads his team in practically every batting category, and is the first and only player to grab 100 total bases thus far. Against MAC opponents, Kanzler's batting line looks like .309/.364/.531. It'd be a shame if he didn't get drafted by someone next month.

EMU: Sam Ott (OF) - One of three players tied for first in the MAC in RBI (40). He's very patient at the plate with a lot of true power potential, just as long as he can shorten his swing a little bit. He leads his team in runs (41), hits (61), doubles (18) and has a batting line of .345/.427/.514. I guess he's okay.

NIU: Eli Anderson (P) - A 3-time 2013 MAC West Pitcher of the Week award winner, Anderson (8-3) is tossing a 1.97 ERA through 91.1 IP including 5 complete games. Just last season, he only had 5 starts with the bulk of his appearances coming from the bullpen.

CMU: Jordan Foley (P) - Foley (6-4) was drafted in the 26th round by the New York Yankees right out of high school, but decided to play some college ball in Mount Pleasant, Mich. instead. He had a rough freshman year, but has really turned it around in 2013 with a team-best 1.85 ERA in 12 starts. Striking out 81 and walking 32 through 78.0 innings pitched is a pretty good formula for success, too.