The Hamburg Bulldogs will square off against the Canisius Crusaders at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. The two teams are strolling into their games after big wins in their previous games.
Canisius will challenge a team with plenty of momentum: Hamburg extended their winning streak to four on Thursday. Everything went the Bulldogs' way against Amherst Central as they made off with a 9-2 victory.
Jacob Jaworski looked comfortable as he tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit.
At the plate, Jonah Moscato was incredible, going 3-for-4 with two stolen bases, four RBI, and two doubles. Another player making a difference was Max Gladke, who went 3-for-4 with two stolen bases, one triple, and one run.
Meanwhile, Canisius never let their opponents score on Friday. They blew past St. Mary's 7-0. The matchup marked the Crusaders' most dominant win of the season so far.
Not much got past Josh Kandefer, who gave up just five hits and racked up six Ks to keep St. Mary's off the board.
On the hitting side, Canisius got a massive performance out of David Barczak, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI, two runs, and one double. Those three RBI gave Barczak a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Joshua Monti, who went 2-for-3 with two runs, two RBI, and one double.
Canisius was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .406. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as St. Mary's only posted a batting average of .115.
Hamburg's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 5-2-1. The road wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for Canisius, the victory got them back to even at 3-3.
Hamburg came out on top in a nail-biter against Canisius in their previous meeting back in March of 2023, sneaking past 3-2. Will the Bulldogs repeat their success, or do the Crusaders have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
