The Bergen Tech Knights will venture away from home to face off against the Clifton Mustangs at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Bergen Tech has given up an average of 7.3 runs per game this season, but Wednesday's game will give them a chance to turn things around.
Bergen Tech came into their game on Tuesday off a hard-fought close win, but unfortunately suffered a serious change of fortune. They lost 13-7 to Passaic County Tech. The Knights have struggled against the Bulldogs recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive lost meeting.
Bergen Tech saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Sarah Mennella, who went 2-for-3 with one stolen base and two RBI.
Meanwhile, Clifton made easy work of Eastside on Monday and carried off a 22-3 victory. The Mustangs might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won six matches by seven runs or more this season.
Andrea Cedeno made a splash while hitting and pitching. She looked comfortable on the mound, striking out seven batters over four innings while giving up just two earned (and one unearned) runs off four hits. Cedeno was also stellar in the batter's box, going 3-for-4 with three runs, four RBI, and one double. Those three hits gave her a new career-high.
In other batting news, Clifton got a massive performance out of Casey Mullen, who got on base in all five of her plate appearances with one home run, three runs, and three RBI. The dominant performance also gave Mullen a new career-high in hits (three). Josephine Zagorski was another key player, going a perfect 4-for-4 with four runs, four RBI, and one double.
Clifton was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .545. They are 5-1 when they post a batting average of .375 or better.
Clifton is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 6-7 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.8 runs on average over those games. As for Bergen Tech, their loss dropped their record down to 9-9.
Bergen Tech took their victory against Clifton in their previous matchup two weeks ago by a conclusive 7-1 score. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Knights since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
