Baseball Game Preview: Shelby Valley Wildcats vs. Paintsville Tigers

Shelby Valley is 0-7 against Paintsville since April of 2015 but things could change on Tuesday. The Wildcats will face off against the Tigers at 6:00 p.m.

Shelby Valley is headed into Tuesday's matchup looking for a big change in momentum after dropping their eighth straight game on Saturday. They were a single run away from ending the streak, but they lost a 3-2 heartbreaker at the hands of Leslie County.

Meanwhile, it was a proper cat-fight when Paintsville faced off against Floyd Central on Monday. The Tigers were the clear victors by a 9-1 margin over the Jaguars. The Tigers might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 11 games by seven runs or more this season.

Anderson Lauffer made a splash while hitting and pitching. He struck out ten batters over seven innings while giving up just one earned run off four hits. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 6.5 strikeouts per game. He was also stellar in the batter's box, getting on base in all four of his plate appearances with three runs and one stolen base.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Alex Kimbler, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with one home run and four RBI. Another player making a difference was Lukas Stewart, who went 2-for-3 with one stolen base, one run, and one RBI.

Paintsville was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .429. That's the best batting average they've posted all season.

Paintsville has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 19-5 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.0 run on average over those games. As for Shelby Valley, their loss dropped their record down to 4-16.

Shelby Valley came up short against Paintsville when the teams last played back in April, falling 4-0. Can the Wildcats avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.