The Pine-Richland Rams will challenge the Shaler Area Titans at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Pine-Richland comes in on six and Shaler Area on three.
Pine-Richland's pitching crew heads into the game hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Thursday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Butler, sneaking past 2-0.
Not much got past Noah Mackie, who gave up just three hits to keep Butler off the board. Mackie has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in three consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, Pine-Richland's win was truly a team effort as four different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Ben Husted, who went 1-for-3 with one triple and one run.
Meanwhile, Shaler Area made easy work of Baldwin on Thursday and carried off a 10-0 victory. Considering the Titans have won five contests by more than five runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Colby Mcguire was incredible, going a perfect 3-for-3 with two stolen bases, four RBI, and two runs. The team also got some help courtesy of Brendan Fitzgerald, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with three stolen bases and one run.
Shaler Area was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .476. That's the best batting average they've posted all season.
Pine-Richland pushed their record up to 11-1 with the win, which was their sixth straight on the road. The road victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 7.7 runs over those games. As for Shaler Area, their win bumped their record up to 7-3.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Tuesday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Pine-Richland has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 8.1 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Shaler Area struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.9 strikeouts. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Everything went Pine-Richland's way against Shaler Area in their previous meeting back in May of 2018, as Pine-Richland made off with an 11-0 victory. Do the Rams have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Titans turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
