Baseball Game Preview: Cherry Hill East Cougars vs. Rancocas Valley Red Devils

For the first time this season, Cherry Hill East will have a chance to prove themselves in a conference matchup. They will welcome the Rancocas Valley Red Devils at 3:45 p.m. on Friday. Cherry Hill East will be strutting in after a victory while Rancocas Valley will be coming in after a defeat.

Cherry Hill East's pitching crew heads into the game hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Monday. They blew past Camden Catholic 11-0. The Cougars haven't had any issues with the Fighting Irish recently, as the game was their eighth consecutive win against them.

Cherry Hill East let Dillon Haddock and Brody Connors run wild. Haddock went 2-for-4 with one home run, five RBI, and three runs, while Connors scored two runs and stole a base while going 4-for-4. Another player making a difference was Zach Salsbery, who scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-4.

Meanwhile, Rancocas Valley fought the good fight in their extra-innings matchup against Eastern on Wednesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Vikings by a score of 10-9.

Rancocas Valley also got a good showing from Logan Shumard, who tossed four innings while giving up just one earned (and two unearned) runs off two hits.

On the hitting side, Brody Deiter made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and went 3-for-5 with two runs, one triple, and two RBI. Jake Bartletta was another key player, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 3-for-5.

Cherry Hill East's first victory this season bumped their record up to 1-0-2. As for Rancocas Valley, their loss dropped their record down to 1-1.

Cherry Hill East skirted past Rancocas Valley 3-2 when the teams last played back in May of 2024. Will the Cougars repeat their success, or do the Red Devils have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.