The Northeastern Knights hosted Union County on Thursday, April 16, in an important Tri-Eastern Conference game. The game was a pitcher’s duel between Union County flame thrower Cole Cheatham and never-nervous Riley Isaacs for the Knights.
The teams battled to a scoreless tie through five complete innings. Cheatham used his 90-mph fastball to record 11 strikeouts. Isaacs countered with a variety of pitches and pinpoint control. At the end of the fifth inning, the scoreboard showed all zeroes.
In the top of the sixth inning, Isaacs again kept the Patriots off the scoreboard and the Patriots made a pitching change, bringing in Ezra Hensley in the bottom of the sixth.
The Knights exhibited patience at the plate, drawing three walks to load the bases with two out. The Patriots mishandled a fly ball to the outfield and all three base runners scored. The Knights added another run to take a 4-0 lead before the Patriots could get out of the inning.
Isaacs slammed the door on the Patriots in the top of the seventh to nail down the win.
Isaacs was the winning pitcher; Hensley took the loss.
The Knights only collected five hits. Isaacs and Logan Seal each had two. The Patriots had six hits, but no Patriot had more than one.
Northeastern (4-2, 1-0 TEC) 0 0 0 0 0 4 – 4
Union County (5-6, 1-1 TEC) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Northeastern hits: Isaacs (2), Kaleb Moore, Seal (2)
Union County hits: Cheatham, Holden Harvey, Xander Hounchell, Colton Johnson, Gunner Miller, Charlie Payne
A version of this article appeared in the April 22 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.