The Northeastern Bobcats will be playing in front of their home fans against the South Western Mustangs at 4:15 p.m. on Monday. Both teams have allowed few runs on average, (Northeastern: 3.8, South Western: 2.6) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Northeastern is probably headed into the matchup with a chip on their shoulder considering Red Lion just ended the team's eight-game winning streak on Wednesday. They fell just short of the Lions by a score of 1-0. The game marked the first time this year in which Northeastern was not able to get on the board.
Drew Barshinger was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out seven over 5.2 innings pitched. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't tossed less than six strikeouts in four consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, Northeastern saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Brandt Johnson, who went 1-for-2 with a double.
Meanwhile, South Western is still undefeated this season after their match against Central Dauphin East on Friday, but Central Dauphin East came as close as anyone has to beating them. South Western came out on top in a nail-biter against Central Dauphin East and snuck past 5-3.
Amanjeet Turka tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run over five innings pitched.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Landen Eyster, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-3. Jacob Berzonski was another key contributor, going 2-for-3 with a stolen base and two RBI.
Northeastern's defeat ended a six-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 11-5. As for South Western, their win was their eighth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 16-0.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Monday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Northeastern has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.9 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like South Western struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.5. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Northeastern suffered a grim 8-1 defeat to South Western in their previous meeting back in March. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of South Western's Carlos Caraballo, who didn't allow a single earned run and only one hit while striking out seven over six innings pitched. Now that Northeastern knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
