The St. Joseph Regional Green Knights will take on the St. Joseph-by-the-Sea Vikings at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (St. Joseph Regional 2.5, St. Joseph-by-the-Sea 2.4) so any runs scored will be well earned.
While St. Joseph Regional's victory against Pascack Valley wasn't quite the blowout it was the last time the pair played, they still came out on top. The Green Knights won by a run and slipped past the Panthers 4-3. The Green Knights haven't had any issues with the Panthers recently, as the game was their fifth consecutive win against them.
Brendan Lewis tossed a big game, striking out seven batters over five innings while giving up just one earned (and two unearned) runs off two hits.
At the plate, St. Joseph Regional saw seven different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Devin Buntzen, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, after only one run in their last match, St. Joseph-by-the-Sea made sure to put some runs up on the board against Monsignor Scanlan on Friday. The Vikings were the clear victors by a 10-1 margin over the Crusaders. That nine run margin sets a new team best for the Vikings this season.
St. Joseph-by-the-Sea also got a great performance from Nicholas Zarski as he struck out 12 batters over five innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Anthony DePetro, who scored two runs while going 3-for-4. Vincent Petruzzelli was another key player, scoring a run and stealing a base while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances.
St. Joseph Regional pushed their record up to 10-1 with the victory, which was their 11th straight at home dating back to last season. The home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.6 runs on average this season. As for St. Joseph-by-the-Sea, their victory bumped their record up to 4-1.
St. Joseph Regional might still be hurting after the 9-2 defeat they got from St. Joseph-by-the-Sea when the teams last played on Saturday. Will the Green Knights have more luck at home instead of on the road? Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other baseball content.
