The Mercyhurst Prep Lakers will take on the Youngsville Eagles at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Mercyhurst Prep will come into the game with an undefeated record on the line.
On Saturday, Mercyhurst Prep was able to grind out a solid victory over Titusville, taking the game 6-2. The six-run effort marked the Lakers' lowest-scoring contest of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Hunter Krahe spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned (and one unearned) run on six hits and racked up seven Ks. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in three consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Noah Reigel, who went 1-for-3 with three RBI and one double. Those RBI marked the first that he brought in this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Rocco Almonte, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Youngsville). They put the hurt on Eisenhower with a sharp 14-1 win on Wednesday. The Eagles haven't had any issues with the Knights recently, as the game was their seventh consecutive victory against them.
David Manning and Braydon Baker were a major factor while hitting and pitching. Throwing, Manning struck out seven batters over three innings while giving up just one earned run off five hits (and not a single walk). Meanwhile, Baker pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. At bat, Manning scored two runs and stole a base while going 3-for-4, while Baker scored three runs and stole four bases while going 3-for-4. The dominant performance also gave Baker a new career-high in RBI (three).
In other batting news, Cole Johnson was incredible, scoring three runs and stealing five bases while going 4-for-4. Those four hits gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was James Johnson, who scored two runs and stole three bases while going 2-for-3.
Youngsville was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .516. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their batting average total in three consecutive matchups.
Mercyhurst Prep pushed their record up to 5-0 with the win, which was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season. Those home victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.7 runs over those games. As for Youngsville, the win got them back to even at 2-2.
