Baseball Preview: Choctawhatchee Indians vs. Escambia Gators
Choctawhatchee and Escambia are an even 4-4 against one another since February of 2020, but likely not for long. The Choctawhatchee Indians have the luxury of staying home for another game and will welcome the Escambia Gators at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Choctawhatchee will be strutting in after a win while Escambia will be coming in after a defeat.
Last Tuesday, Choctawhatchee earned an 8-3 victory over Pine Forest.
Choctawhatchee got a great performance from Carson Appleton as he pitched 4.2 innings while giving up just one earned (and two unearned) runs off five hits (he also only allowed one walk). Appleton has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two walks in six consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, Jaxon Knight was excellent, scoring two runs while going 2-for-4. Kamron Kestner was another key contributor, scoring a run and stealing two bases.
While Escambia couldn't quite beat West Florida on Thursday, the two-point margin was a huge improvement compared to the 11-point loss they were dealt on Tuesday. Escambia fell just short of West Florida by a score of 3-1. Escambia has not had much luck with West Florida recently, as the team's come up short the last two times they've met.
Escambia saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Christian Stone, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.
Choctawhatchee has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a massive bump to their 7-10 record this season. As for Escambia, their defeat ended a five-game streak of away wins and brought them to 15-5.
Choctawhatchee couldn't quite finish off Escambia when the teams last played back in March and fell 2-0. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Escambia's Clayton Sanders, who didn't allow a single earned run while striking out eight over six innings pitched. Now that Choctawhatchee 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
