Baseball Recap: East Hartford Takes a Loss

East Hartford extended their losing streak to three on Thursday, dropping their season record down to 8-15 in the process. They took a 5-2 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Northwest Catholic Lions. Unfortunately, that's the second time they've come up short against the Lions this season, as they also lost their prior matchup 7-4 back in April.

As for Northwest Catholic, the win was the fourth in a row for them, bringing their record up to 10-10. Those victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 7.8 runs over those games.

For Northwest Catholic's part, Jonah Balcerzak was a major factor no matter where he played. He pitched 3.1 innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits. Balcerzak has been consistent: he hasn't given up more than two hits in five consecutive appearances. He was also big at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two stolen bases and one run. He is becoming a predictor of Northwest Catholic's success: when he posts at least two stolen bases the team is 2-1 (and 8-9 when he doesn't).

In other pitching news, Ben Hall looked comfortable as he pitched 3.2 innings while giving up just one earned run off four hits. He also tossed no walks, which is notable because Northwest Catholic is 4-1 when he allows at most two walks, but 6-9 otherwise.

Back at the plate, the team relied heavily on Brennan Sautters, who got on base in two of his three plate appearances with two stolen bases and one run. Those two stolen bases gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Will Vincent, who went 1-for-3 with one run, one double, and one RBI.

As of now, neither East Hartford nor Northwest Catholic have any future games scheduled.