Baseball Game Preview: East Wilkes Cardinals vs. Elkin Buckin' Elks

The East Wilkes Cardinals will venture away from home to challenge the Elkin Buckin' Elks at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (East Wilkes has four straight victories, Elkin has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.

East Wilkes is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They were the clear victor by a 14-4 margin over Elkin on Tuesday. With that win, the Cardinals brought their scoring average up to 6.3 runs per game.

Elijah Johnson

Batters Struck Out

03/18/25 vs Elkin	8
03/14/25 vs Mount Airy	1
03/11/25 @ Mount Airy	5
03/07/25 vs North Wilkes	6
04/30/24 vs Alleghany	4
+ 5 more games

Elijah Johnson made a splash no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, striking out eight batters over six innings while giving up four earned runs off six hits (and only one walk). That's the most strikeouts he has posted since back in March of 2024. He was also big at the plate, scoring three runs and stealing a base while going 3-for-4. That stolen base marked the first that he snagged this season.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Seth Lambert, who went a perfect 3-for-3 with one home run, seven RBI, and two runs. That's the most runs he has posted since back in April of 2024. Dalton Wood was another key player, going 2-for-4 with three runs and one triple.

East Wilkes was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .400. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Elkin only posted a batting average of .250.

East Wilkes' victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 5-1. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.3 runs on average over those games. As for Elkin, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-6.