Baseball Game Preview: AuSable Valley Patriots vs. Saranac Spartans

AuSable Valley is 2-8 against Saranac since April of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Patriots will venture away from home to challenge the Spartans at 4:30 p.m.

AuSable Valley is headed into Friday's contest looking for a big change in momentum after dropping their 14th straight game dating back to last season back in April. They took a 6-1 hit to the loss column at the hands of Beekmantown.

Meanwhile, Saranac had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 7 runs) and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They narrowly escaped with a win as the team sidled past the Lumberjacks 4-2.

Caleb Champagne tossed a big game, pitching five innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off four hits.

On the hitting side, Saranac's victory was truly a team effort as five different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Adrian Barnes, who went 1-for-2 with one run, one double, and one RBI.

Saranac's win was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 8-1. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.7 runs on average over those games. As for AuSable Valley, their loss dropped their record down to 0-6.

AuSable Valley might still be hurting after the 10-1 defeat they got from Saranac when the teams last played back in May of 2024. Can the Patriots avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.