Baseball Game Preview: Riverside-Durham Pirates vs. Chapel Hill Tigers

For the second straight game, Riverside-Durham will face off against Chapel Hill. The Pirates will be playing in front of their home fans against the Tigers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Riverside-Durham 1.3, Chapel Hill 4) so any runs scored will be well earned.

Riverside-Durham is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to ten runs two weeks ago, they were much more limited against Chapel Hill on Tuesday. They took a 4-1 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Tigers. The Pirates have struggled against the Tigers recently, as the game was their ninth consecutive lost meeting.

For Chapel Hill's part, David Campos was excellent, scoring a run and stealing two bases while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances. That's the most stolen bases Campos has posted since back in February. Another player making a difference was James Staats, who scored two runs while going 2-for-3.

Chapel Hill's victory was their first in the conference, bumping their conference record up to 1-2 and their overall record up to 7-5. As for Riverside-Durham, their defeat was their first of the season and makes their record 10-1.

The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Riverside-Durham has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 9 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Chapel Hill struggles in that department as they've been averaging an even more impressive 10.6 strikeouts. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one. Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.