Baseball Preview: West Rowan Falcons vs. North Iredell Raiders
West Rowan is 9-0 against North Iredell since March of 2015, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Thursday. The West Rowan Falcons will head out on the road to challenge the North Iredell Raiders at 7:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (West Rowan has five straight wins, North Iredell has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Last Tuesday, West Rowan was able to grind out a solid victory over Northwest Cabarrus, taking the game 6-1.
Corbin Bailey spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on five hits and racked up seven Ks.
On the hitting side, West Rowan's win was truly a team effort as six different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Eli Graham, who scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-4. The team also got some help courtesy of Cole Blevins, who scored a run and stole two bases while getting on base in two of his four plate appearances.
Meanwhile, it was a hard-fought match, but North Iredell had to settle for a 5-4 loss against Hickory on Tuesday. That's two games in a row now that North Iredell has lost by just one run.
West Rowan's victory was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 15-4. As for North Iredell, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-8.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Thursday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. West Rowan has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.1 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like North Iredell struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.7. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
West Rowan took their win against North Iredell in their previous meeting back in March of 2023 by a conclusive 12-2. The rematch might be a little tougher for West Rowan since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
