Baseball Game Preview: Harlan County Black Bears vs. North Laurel Jaguars

The Harlan County Black Bears will head out on the road to challenge the North Laurel Jaguars at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. Harlan County has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the matchup with three straight defeats, while North Laurel will come in with four straight wins.

Saturday just wasn't the day for Harlan County's offense. They fell 3-0 to Knox Central on Saturday. Give some credit to the fans of both teams: the last five times they've met, the home team has come away the winner.

Harlan County saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Aiden Craig, who went 2-for-3 with two doubles.

Meanwhile, North Laurel was able to grind out a solid victory over Pulaski County on Saturday, taking the game 9-6.

The team relied heavily on Cam Smith, who went 2-for-3 with one home run and three RBI. He has become a key player for North Laurel: the team is undefeated when he posts at least one home run, but 9-12 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Carter Kelley, who went 1-for-3 with one home run, two runs, and two RBI.

North Laurel was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .375. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Pulaski County only posted a batting average of .240.

North Laurel pushed their record up to 15-12 with the win, which was their third straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 4.0 runs on average over those games. As for Harlan County, their loss dropped their record down to 7-17-1.

Harlan County couldn't quite finish off North Laurel when the teams last played back in May of 2024 and fell 8-6. Can the Black Bears avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.