Baseball Preview: Old Forge Blue Devils vs. Lakeland Chiefs
The Old Forge Blue Devils will look to defend their home field on Tuesday against the Lakeland Chiefs at 4:30 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Old Forge has three straight wins, Lakeland has six straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
On Monday, it was close, but Old Forge sidestepped Dunmore for a 5-4 victory. Five seems to be a good number for Old Forge as the team scooped up a win with the same number of runs in their previous game.
Old Forge's victory was truly a team effort as three different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Dominick Palma, who scored a run while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances.
Meanwhile, Lakeland fell victim to a rough 12-1 loss at the hands of Riverside on Monday.
Lakeland saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Tyler Uram, who went 1-for-3 with a triple and an RBI. Uram has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two walks in three consecutive pitching appearances.
Old Forge's win bumped their record up to 3-4. As for Lakeland, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-5.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Tuesday as both teams have some strikeout artists on the roster. Old Forge has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 8.4 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Lakeland struggles in that department as they've been averaging 6.8. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Old Forge came out on top in a nail-biter against Lakeland when the teams last played back in May of 2023, sneaking past 5-3. Will Old Forge repeat their success, or does Lakeland have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
