The Annville-Cleona Dutchmen will head out on the road to square off against the Hempfield Black Knights at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Annville-Cleona 4.1, Hempfield 3.4) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Things were looking good for Annville-Cleona after they put the first run on the board on Wednesday, but unfortunately for them things went downhill from there. They fell 5-2 to Northern Lebanon. The Dutchmen have struggled against the Vikings recently, as the game was their sixth consecutive lost meeting.
Meanwhile, Hempfield put another one in the bag on Monday to keep their perfect season alive. Their pitchers stepped up to hand J.P. McCaskey an 11-0 shutout. The result was nothing new for the Black Knights, who have now won 12 matches by six runs or more so far this season.
Hempfield let Joshua Toole and Camden Hulock run wild. Toole went 3-for-4 with two runs, one triple, and one stolen base, while Hulock went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases, two runs, and one RBI. Those two stolen bases gave Hulock a new career-high. Xavier Felix also deserves some recognition as he brought in his first RBI of the season.
Hempfield was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .429. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a batting average of .333 or higher in four consecutive games.
Hempfield pushed their record up to 18-0 with the win, which was their 13th straight at home dating back to last season. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.2 runs on average over those games. As for Annville-Cleona, their loss dropped their record down to 10-8.
Annville-Cleona might still be hurting after the 11-1 defeat they got from Hempfield in their previous meeting back in May of 2019. Can the Dutchmen avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
