Baseball Game Preview: St. Francis Mariners vs. Cudahy Packers

The St. Francis Mariners will head out to take on the Cudahy Packers at 4:45 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (St. Francis has 11 straight victories, Cudahy has five straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.

For some reason, the away team has come away with the win the last four times St. Francis and Heritage Christian have met, but the home crowd finally got their W on Thursday. The Mariners narrowly escaped with a win as the squad sidled past the Patriots 4-2. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Mariners have posted since April 14th.

Tyler Budzien

Batters Struck Out

05/15/25 vs Heritage Christian	11
05/06/25 @ Augustine Prep	13
05/03/25 @ Catholic Central	12
04/29/25 @ Kenosha Christian Life	14
04/21/25 vs Lake Country Lutheran	6

Tyler Budzien made a big impact while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out 11 over five innings pitched. He has been consistent: he hasn't tossed less than six strikeouts in five consecutive appearances. He was also solid in the batter's box, going 2-for-3 with two stolen bases, one run, and one double.

In other batting news, Noah Heitman was excellent, going 1-for-3 with two RBI, one run, and one double.

Cudahy had taken Greenfield down for two straight games at home, but that winning streak came to an end on Wednesday. The Packers fell 4-1 to the Hustlin' Hawks.

St. Francis' win was their seventh straight at home, which pushed their record up to 14-6. Those home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.0 run on average over those games. As for Cudahy, their loss dropped their record down to 5-12.

St. Francis came out on top in a nail-biter against Cudahy when the teams last played back in May of 2018, sneaking past 7-5. Will the Mariners repeat their success, or do the Packers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.