Baseball Game Preview: Horace Mann Lions vs. Hackley Hornets

The Horace Mann Lions are taking a road trip to challenge the Hackley Hornets at 4:15 p.m. on Friday. Horace Mann's pitching crew has only allowed 3.1 runs per game this season, so Hackley's hitters will have their work cut out for them.

Horace Mann fought the good fight in their extra-innings game against Riverdale Country on Wednesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Falcons by a score of 7-6. The loss was the Lions' first of the season.

Augie Grimstad was cooking despite his team's loss, going 3-for-4 with one run and one RBI. Zach Schwartz also deserves some recognition as he hit his first double of the season.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Hackley). Everything went their way against Collegiate on Wednesday as they made off with a 12-2 victory. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest win of the season.

Hackley has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 5-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 8.5 runs over those games. Having lost for the first time this season, Horace Mann fell to 8-1.

Horace Mann beat Hackley 11-8 in their previous matchup two weeks ago. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Lions since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.