Softball Game Preview: Point Pleasant Beach Garnet Gulls vs. Barnegat Bengals

The Point Pleasant Beach Garnet Gulls will face off against the Barnegat Bengals at 3:45 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Point Pleasant Beach is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They put the hurt on Neptune with a sharp 16-1 victory on Wednesday. The Garnet Gulls not only won on Wednesday, but they posted their biggest win since May 7, 2024 (when they won 23-1).

The team relied heavily on Bridget Kane, who got on base in all three of her plate appearances with three runs, one stolen base, and two RBI. That's the most runs she has posted since back in May of 2024. Another player making a difference was Olivia Derasmo, who went 1-for-3 with three RBI and one run.

Meanwhile, Barnegat had already won eight in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 7.8 runs) and they went ahead and made it nine on Tuesday. Their pitchers stepped up to hand the Hawks a 7-0 shutout. Considering the Bengals have won eight contests by more than five runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.

Barnegat pushed their record up to 13-4 with the win, which was their eighth straight on the road. The road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.5 runs on average over those games. As for Point Pleasant Beach, their win ended an eight-game drought at home dating back to last season and bumped them up to 3-11.

Point Pleasant Beach suffered a grim 12-0 defeat to Barnegat in their previous meeting back in April. Will the Garnet Gulls have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.