The North East Grape Pickers will look to defend their home field on Wednesday against the Harbor Creek Huskies at 4:00 p.m. The last three games North East has played have been within two runs, so don't be surprised if it's a close one.
North East took a loss when they played away from home on Friday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Monday. They narrowly escaped with a win as the squad sidled past Girard 9-8.
Jerek Turlij was a major factor no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. Turlij was also big at the plate, going 1-for-4 with a home run, three runs, and two RBI.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Tommy Owens, who went 1-for-4 with a home run. Another player making a difference was Braydon Cornman, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-4.
Meanwhile, Harbor Creek put the finishing touches on their tenth blowout victory of the season on Tuesday. They never let Corry onto the board and left with a 10-0 victory. That's two games straight that Harbor Creek has won by exactly ten runs.
Not much got past Sam LaFuria, who gave up just two hits and racked up seven Ks to keep Corry off the board. LaFuria has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than two walks in four consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Gio Barbato, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with a home run and two RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Tyler Burick, who scored two runs while going 2-for-3.
North East's win bumped their record up to 4-10. As for Harbor Creek, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 13-6.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Wednesday. North East hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.4 home runs per game. However, it's not like Harbor Creek struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.5. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
North East suffered a grim 9-2 defeat to Harbor Creek in their previous matchup back in April. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Harbor Creek's Heath Betza, who struck out nine batters over five innings while giving up just two earned runs off seven hits (and only one walk). Now that North East 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
