Baseball Game Preview: West Scranton Invaders vs. Wallenpaupack Area Buckhorns

West Scranton is 1-9 against Wallenpaupack Area since April of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Wednesday. West Scranton will challenge Wallenpaupack Area at 4:30 p.m. This will be West Scranton's first chance to prove their worth in the conference.

West Scranton fought the good fight in their extra-innings matchup against Old Forge on Sunday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Blue Devils by a score of 6-4.

Tyler Scotch was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits while striking out nine over six innings pitched. Those nine strikeouts gave him a new career-high.

Anderson Hidalgo

Hits (Career)

03/30/25 vs Old Forge	2
03/27/25 @ Pottsville	1
05/08/24 vs Scranton Prep	1
05/06/24 @ Valley View	1
04/29/24 @ North Pocono	1

At the plate, West Scranton saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Anderson Hidalgo, who went 2-for-5 with two RBI. Those two hits gave Hidalgo a new career-high. Jason Selemba also deserves some recognition as he got his first hit of the season.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Wallenpaupack Area, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Tuesday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 6-5 victory over Honesdale on Saturday. The Buckhorns' hitters stepped up their game for this one, as that was the most runs they've scored all season.

Peyton Toth and Greg Van Gorder did most of the damage at the plate: Toth scored a run and stole a base while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances, while Van Gorder scored a run while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. The team also got some help courtesy of Michael Paltzer, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.

West Scranton's loss dropped their record down to 1-3. As for Wallenpaupack Area, their win (their first of the season) made their record 1-3.

West Scranton couldn't quite finish off Wallenpaupack Area in their previous meeting back in May of 2024 and fell 2-0. Can West Scranton avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.