Baseball Game Preview: Montbello Warriors vs. Northfield Nighthawks

The Montbello Warriors will challenge the Northfield Nighthawks at 4:15 p.m. on Friday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Montbello has struggled recently with five defeats in a row, while Northfield will arrive with 12 straight wins.

Montbello fought the good fight in their extra-innings game against Denver North on Tuesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Vikings by a score of 3-2.

Montbello saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Derek Alvidrez, who went 2-for-5 with two doubles and one RBI. Santiago Nava was another, scoring a run while going 3-for-5.

Meanwhile, Northfield made easy work of Rangeview on Wednesday and carried off a 15-4 victory. Considering the Nighthawks have won eight matches by more than five runs this season, Wednesday's blowout was nothing new.

Jackson Taylor looked comfortable as he pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit.

On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Eli Jackson, who scored three runs and stole a base while going 3-for-4. Another player making a difference was Peter Worth, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-2.

Northfield was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .654. The last time their batting average was this high was back in April of 2024.

Northfield pushed their record up to 12-1 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home dating back to last season. Those home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.4 runs on average over those games. As for Montbello, their loss dropped their record down to 4-10.

The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Montbello has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.4 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Northfield struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.8 strikeouts. 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.