Baseball Game Preview: Lampeter-Strasburg Pioneers vs. Elizabethtown Bears

The Lampeter-Strasburg Pioneers will take on the Elizabethtown Bears at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.

On Monday, Lampeter-Strasburg needed a bit of extra time to put away Manheim Central. They skirted past the Barons 2-1. The Pioneers haven't had any issues with the Barons recently, as the game was their third consecutive victory against them.

Cooper Hillen

Stolen Base (Career)

05/19/25 vs Manheim Central	3
04/25/25 @ Manheim Central	2
04/24/24 vs Lebanon	2
04/09/25 vs Elizabethtown	1
04/02/25 @ Solanco	1

Cooper Hillen made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he pitched 1.2 innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. Hillen was also big at the plate, getting on base in four of his five plate appearances with three stolen bases. Those three stolen bases gave him a new career-high.

In other pitching news, Lampeter-Strasburg got a great performance from Devin Aponte as he didn't allow a single earned run over five innings pitched.

Back at the plate, the team relied heavily on Gavin Tipping, who went 3-for-4 with one stolen base and one RBI. That's the most hits he has posted since back in April.

Meanwhile, Elizabethtown won against Hershey on Friday with two runs and they decided to stick to that run total again on Monday. The Bears had just enough and edged out Lower Dauphin 2-1. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Bears.

Elizabethtown's win bumped their record up to 13-9. As for Lampeter-Strasburg, their victory bumped their record up to 18-6.

Lampeter-Strasburg was able to grind out a solid win over Elizabethtown in their previous matchup back in April, winning 5-0. Will the Pioneers repeat their success, or do the Bears have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.