On Saturday, Stroudsburg’s short-lived run in the Eastern Penn Conference playoffs came to an end as they suffered a loss at home to Nazareth High School, 6-5.

The game was tightly contested throughout with both teams fighting until the bitter end. With the score 3-0, Nazareth after two and a half innings, the Mountaineers rallied for the next three home half innings, scoring a run in each of them to tie the game at three. Nazareth would put a run on in the sixth inning to take a 4-3 lead, and they were able to thwart a seventh inning rally by Stroudsburg to hold on to a 6-5 victory.

On the mound for Stroudsburg, Damian Budhai, ’27, pitched a solid game, going 6 and a 1/3, allowing three earned runs (six total runs), on six hits (all singles – no extra-base hits), while striking out four and only walking one. He ended up taking the loss in this game. Stroudsburg’s defense did not do any favors for Budhai, committing five errors in the field.

For Nazareth, their bright spot came on the offensive side of the ball with Chase Kilareski and Matt Daems both having multi-hit performances and driving in a run. The Blue Eagles were able to win this game without recording an extra-base hit, with all of their knocks being singles.

Stroudsburg had solid contributions on the offensive side as well, with seniors Alex Pacitti, Anthony Knight, and Paulie Maccarrone all driving in runs. Pacitti was the lone Mountaineer to have a multi-hit game, going 2-4 from the plate with a walk and two runs driven in.

With the EPC playoffs now behind him, Stroudsburg turns its attention to Bangor, whom they will matchup against on Thursday. It will be the first time in over a decade that the two teams have matched up, with the most recent contest coming on May 3, 2014 (Bangor 10-Stroudsburg 9). All-time, Stroudsburg is 2-1 against Bangor.