Baseball Preview: Altoona Mountain Lions vs. Central Dauphin Rams
Altoona is 1-6 against Central Dauphin since April of 2021 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Monday. The Altoona Mountain Lions will be playing at home against the Central Dauphin Rams at 4:15 p.m. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Altoona gave up the first runs on Saturday, but they didn't let that get them down. They came out on top against Red Land by a score of 9-5 (the very same score they lost by in their prior game).
Tanner Stroup was a major factor no matter where he played. On the mound, he struck out 11 batters over five innings while giving up just one earned (and three unearned) runs off four hits. Stroup was also big at the plate, going 2-for-3 with two runs, a triple, and a double.
In other batting news, Connor Sanders was excellent, going 2-for-3 with two RBI and a double.
Meanwhile, Central Dauphin entered their tilt with Cumberland Valley with two consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with three. They never let the Eagles onto the board and left with a 2-0 victory on Thursday.
The result came thanks to Nate Payne's shutout, as he gave up just four hits and racked up 12 Ks. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't pitched less than five innings in six consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, Central Dauphin's win was truly a team effort as four different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Jace Collins, who scored a run while going 2-for-2.
Altoona has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 10-6 record this season. As for Central Dauphin, they pushed their record up to 8-5 with that victory, which was their third straight at home.
Altoona might still be hurting after the 8-0 loss they got from Central Dauphin in their previous matchup back in March. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Payne, who kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out 16 over seven innings pitched. Now that Altoona knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
