Baseball Preview: Eastern Wayne Warriors vs. North Johnston Panthers
The Eastern Wayne Warriors will head out on the road to challenge the North Johnston Panthers at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Given that the pair suffered a loss in their last game, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this matchup.
Eastern Wayne lost 15-9 to American Leadership Academy-Johnston on Monday. Eastern Wayne has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Eastern Wayne saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Dalton Gray, who went 3-for-3 with four RBI, two doubles, and a run. Isiah Davis was another key contributor, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 2-for-4.
Meanwhile, Thursday just wasn't the day for North Johnston's offense. They fell just short of Goldsboro by a score of 2-0 on Thursday. Having soared to a lofty 12 runs in the game before, North Johnston's shutout was a dramatic turnaround.
Jackson King spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned (and one unearned) run on five hits and racked up seven Ks. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one walk in three consecutive pitching appearances.
Eastern Wayne's loss dropped their record down to 3-15. As for North Johnston, their defeat dropped their record down to 13-6.
The pitchers for both teams better look sharp on Tuesday as neither team is afraid to steal. Eastern Wayne has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 3.6 stolen bases per game. However, it's not like North Johnston struggles in that department as they've been averaging 3.7. The only question left is which team can snag more.
Eastern Wayne suffered a grim 13-0 defeat to North Johnston in their previous meeting on April 10th. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of North Johnston's Daniel Turner, who didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out eight over five innings pitched. Now that Eastern Wayne knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
