Baseball Preview: Newark Academy Minutemen vs. Belleville Buccaneers
Newark Academy has enjoyed a three-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They will take on the Belleville Buccaneers at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
If Newark Academy beats Belleville with 16 runs on Friday, it's going to be the squad's new lucky number: they've won their past two games with that exact score. Newark Academy put the hurt on Payne Tech with a sharp 16-1 win on Thursday.
Shane Sampson looked comfortable as he didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out six over four innings pitched.
On the hitting side, Newark Academy got a massive performance out of Ryan Zhu, who went 3-for-3 with five RBI, two runs, and two doubles. Another player making a difference was Carson DiVirgillio, who scored three runs and stole a base while going 4-for-4.
Meanwhile, Belleville never let their opponents score on Monday. They were the clear victor by a 14-0 margin over Shabazz. The high-flying hitting performance was a huge turnaround for Belleville considering their one-run performance the matchup before.
Newark Academy's victory bumped their record up to 6-1. As for Belleville, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 5-3 record this season.
Newark Academy suffered a grim 8-1 defeat to Belleville in their previous meeting back in April of 2023. Can Newark Academy avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
