The Nazareth Area Blue Eagles are taking a road trip to square off against the Liberty Hurricanes at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Nazareth Area's pitching crew has only allowed 2.6 runs per game this season, so Liberty's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
Nazareth Area is probably headed into the contest with a chip on their shoulder considering Northampton just ended the team's six-game winning streak on Thursday. They fell just short of the Konkrete Kids by a score of 5-4. Blue Eagles fans who chose to attend the game sure picked the wrong one: it was the first time the team's lost against the Konkrete Kids since on Thursday.
Bennett Sanford made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and went a perfect 1-for-1 with one triple, two RBI, and one run. That triple marked the first that he hit this season.
Meanwhile, Liberty waltzed into their matchup on Wednesday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They walked away with a 9-5 win over the Mountaineers.
Liberty also got a great performance from Michael Mariano Jr. as he struck out nine batters over six innings while giving up just one earned (and three unearned) runs off six hits. Those nine strikeouts gave Mariano Jr. a new career-high.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Max Landis, who went 1-for-2 with two runs, one triple, and two RBI. Kamron Kensicki was another key player, getting on base in all five of his plate appearances with one RBI.
Liberty's victory was their tenth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 7-1. Those road wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 11.7 runs over those games. As for Nazareth Area, their loss dropped their record down to 6-3.
Nazareth Area came out on top in a nail-biter against Liberty in their previous matchup back in May of 2024, sneaking past 4-2. Will the Blue Eagles repeat their success, or do the Hurricanes have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
