Baseball Game Preview: Lampeter-Strasburg Pioneers vs. Pine-Richland Rams

The Lampeter-Strasburg Pioneers will face off against the Pine-Richland Rams on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Lampeter-Strasburg 3.1, Pine-Richland 2.8) so any runs scored will be well earned.

Lampeter-Strasburg is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Monday. They had just enough and edged out Peters Township 2-1. The win was nothing new for the Pioneers as they're now sitting on five straight.

Devin Aponte tossed a big game, pitching 4.2 innings while giving up just one earned run off four hits.

At the plate, Lampeter-Strasburg's victory was truly a team effort as six different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Brayden Hart, who went 2-for-3 with one run.

Meanwhile, Pine-Richland faced Central Mountain in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Monday. The Rams came out on top against the Wildcats by a score of 8-5.

Pine-Richland let Breck Hemphill and Sam Heckert run wild. Hemphill went 1-for-3 with two RBI, one run, and one double, while Heckert went 2-for-4 with two runs and one triple. That's the most RBI Hemphill has posted since back in March. Another player making a difference was Anthony Mengine, who went 1-for-2 with one run, one double, and one RBI.

Pine-Richland pushed their record up to 21-4 with the win, which was their fourth straight on the road. The road victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 8.0 runs over those games. As for Lampeter-Strasburg, their win bumped their record up to 21-6.

The pitchers for both teams better look sharp on Thursday as neither team is afraid to steal. Lampeter-Strasburg has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 3.1 stolen bases per game. However, it's not like Pine-Richland struggles in that department as they've been averaging an even more impressive 3.8 stolen bases. The only question left is which team can snag more. Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other baseball content.