The Piedmont Highlanders will square off against the Northgate Broncos at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Piedmont 4, Northgate 2) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Piedmont is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Archie Williams, sneaking past 7-6.
George Bishop tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run over 5.1 innings pitched. He has been consistent for a while: he hasn't given up more than two walks in 13 consecutive appearances.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Diego Delventhal, who went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases, two runs, and one RBI. Jordan Vo was another key player, getting on base in all four of his plate appearances with one run and one RBI.
Meanwhile, Northgate came tearing into Tuesday's matchup with six straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 13.2 runs), and they left with even more momentum. They put the hurt on the Dragons with a sharp 9-2 win. Considering the Broncos have won ten games by more than six runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.
Northgate also got a great performance from Max Carlos as he struck out seven batters over 6.1 innings while giving up just two earned runs off five hits (and only one walk).
On the hitting side, Christopher Flores was incredible, going 1-for-3 with one home run, two runs, and two RBI. Another player making a difference was Luke Dress, who went 2-for-3 with three stolen bases and one run.
Northgate's victory was their seventh straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 17-7. Those road wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 7.4 runs over those games. As for Piedmont, their victory bumped their record up to 16-9.
