Baseball Game Preview: Mount St. Joseph Gaels vs. John Carroll Patriots

For the second straight game, Mount St. Joseph will face off against John Carroll. The Gaels will challenge the Patriots at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Mount St. Joseph is on an eight-game streak of home wins, John Carroll a four-game streak of away wins, meaning someone's leaving a streak behind.

Mount St. Joseph is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Maryland's top teams: John Carroll, who was ranked third at the time (Mount St. Joseph was ranked eighth). The Gaels fell just short of the Patriots by a score of 8-7 on Wednesday. The Gaels have struggled against the Patriots recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive lost meeting.

For John Carroll's part, Dalton Cole looked comfortable as he tossed 3.2 innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off three hits. Cole has been consistent: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in six consecutive appearances.

At the plate, John Carroll let Casey Carpenter and Joey Coudon run wild. Carpenter went 3-for-4 with two runs, one triple, and one stolen base, while Coudon went 1-for-3 with one home run, two runs, and two RBI. That's the most hits Carpenter has posted since back in March. Will Rhine was another key player, getting on base in all four of his plate appearances with one run and one RBI.

John Carroll was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .385. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a batting average of .321 or higher in five consecutive matches.

John Carroll is on a roll lately: they've won 12 of their last 13 games. That's provided a nice bump to their 21-6-1 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.1 runs on average over those games. As for Mount St. Joseph, their defeat dropped their record down to 14-8.