Baseball Preview: Old Forge Blue Devils vs. Mid Valley Spartans
The Old Forge Blue Devils will look to defend their home field on Wednesday against the Mid Valley Spartans at 4:30 p.m. The timing is sure in Old Forge's favor as the team sits on three straight wins at home while Mid Valley has been banged up by three consecutive losses on the road.
Old Forge is headed into the match fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Western Wayne a 10-0 shutout on Monday. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest victory of the season.
Joseph Granko made a splash no matter where he played. He didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out nine over five innings pitched. Granko has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in four consecutive pitching appearances. Granko was also big at the plate, going 1-for-3 with three RBI.
In other batting news, Old Forge let Jake Iacavazzi and Cam Krushnowski loose on the outfield. Iacavazzi went 2-for-3 with a triple, a stolen base, and two RBI, while Krushnowski scored three runs and stole two bases. Another player making a difference was TJ DiMattia, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with a double and an RBI.
Meanwhile, it was a hard-fought game, but Mid Valley had to settle for a 6-5 loss against Honesdale on Saturday.
Mid Valley saw seven different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Nick Mills, who went 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBI, and a double. The team also got some help courtesy of Chase Eshelman, who scored a run while going 2-for-4.
Even though they lost, Mid Valley didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with 12 strikeouts. That's the most strikeouts they've managed all season.
Old Forge is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 5-5 record this season. As for Mid Valley, their defeat dropped their record down to 6-5.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Wednesday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Old Forge has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 8.7 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Mid Valley struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.5. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one. Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more baseball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
