Baseball Game Preview: Northern Highlands Highlanders vs. Wayne Hills Patriots

Northern Highlands and Wayne Hills are an even 5-5 against one another since April of 2015, but likely not for long. The Highlanders will head out to challenge the Patriots at 4:15 p.m. on Friday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Northern Highlands 3.6, Wayne Hills 3.3) so any runs scored will be well earned.

On Tuesday, Northern Highlands didn't have quite enough to beat Ridgewood and fell 2-1. The contest marked the Highlanders' lowest-scoring match so far this season.

Rowan Trepicchio was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he didn't allow a single earned run over 5.1 innings pitched. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in five consecutive appearances.

On the hitting side, Northern Highlands saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Evan Radoncic, who went 1-for-3 with one double. Tyler Baelis also deserves some recognition as he snagged his first stolen bases of the season.

Meanwhile, Wayne Hills narrowly escaped with a win as the squad sidled past Wayne Valley 6-5.

Wayne Hills now has a winning record of 6-5. As for Northern Highlands, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 9-4.

Northern Highlands came up short against Wayne Hills in their previous matchup back in April of 2024, falling 4-0. Can the Highlanders avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.