Baseball Game Preview: Traverse City Central Trojans vs. Forest Hills Northern Huskies

The Traverse City Central Trojans will head out to take on the Forest Hills Northern Huskies at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. The two teams are strolling into their matchups after big wins in their previous games.

Traverse City Central not only won on Friday, but they posted their biggest win since May 17, 2024 (when they won 14-5). Their pitchers stepped up to hand Boyne City a 9-0 shutout. While the Trojans didn't have the best season last year (they finished 4-18), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past.

Meanwhile, Forest Hills Northern waltzed into their game on Wednesday with four straight wins... but they left with five. They put the hurt on the Bengals with a sharp 15-0 victory. That's two games straight that the Huskies have won by exactly 15 runs.

Sam Garrett looked comfortable as he pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. He is becoming a predictor of Forest Hills Northern's success: when he allows at most one earned run the team is 2-1 (and 5-7 when he doesn't).

On the hitting side, Forest Hills Northern got a massive performance out of Devin Tiedgen, who got on base in all three of his plate appearances with three runs, one stolen base, and one double. Tiedgen has become a key player for the Huskies: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 3-8 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Cas Anderson, who went a perfect 1-for-1 with two runs, one triple, and one RBI.

Forest Hills Northern always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .696. The last time their OBP was this high was was before the start of last season.

Forest Hills Northern pushed their record up to 7-8 with the win, which was their third straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 12.0 runs over those games. As for Traverse City Central, the win made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 6-4.

Traverse City Central skirted past Forest Hills Northern 2-1 in their previous matchup back in May of 2024. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Trojans since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.