Baseball Game Preview: Polk County Wolverines vs. Patton Panthers

The Polk County Wolverines will square off against the Patton Panthers at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Polk County is coming into the game on a four-game losing streak.

On Monday, Polk County didn't have quite enough to beat Hendersonville and fell 3-1. That's two games in a row now that the Wolverines have lost by exactly two runs.

Gunnar Alm made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and went a perfect 2-for-2 with one home run and one stolen base.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Patton). Everything went their way against Avery County on Monday as they made off with a 16-6 victory. The Panthers haven't had any issues with the Vikings recently, as the game was their seventh consecutive win against them.

Landry Duvall made a splash while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits. He also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because Patton is 2-1 when he allows at most one earned run, but 6-7 otherwise. Duvall was also stellar in the batter's box, going 3-for-4 with five RBI, two runs, and two doubles. That's the most doubles he has posted since back in March.

In other batting news, Patton got a massive performance out of Laine Barrier, who scored three runs while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances. Those three runs gave Barrier a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Cohen Christian, who scored three runs and stole a base while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances.

Patton always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .585. They are a perfect 4-0 when they post an OBP of .513 or better.

Polk County's loss dropped their record down to 6-10. As for Patton, the victory got them back to even at 8-8.

Polk County came out on top in a nail-biter against Patton in their previous matchup back in March of 2024, sneaking past 4-3. Will the Wolverines repeat their success, or do the Panthers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.