Baseball Game Preview: Auburndale Apaches vs. Stratford Tigers

For the second straight game, Auburndale will face off against Stratford. The Apaches will welcome the Tigers at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday. Auburndale is currently enjoying a perfect season and no doubt wants to keep things rolling.

Auburndale's pitching crew heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Tuesday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 2-0 victory over Stratford. Those two runs were actually the fewest the Apaches have put up all season, but given the result they're probably not too concerned.

For Stratford's part, Drew Gage was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he didn't allow a single earned run while striking out six over 4.2 innings pitched. Gage has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up a single earned run in three consecutive appearances.

At the plate, Stratford saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Jack Tubbs, who went 1-for-3 with two stolen bases. Tubbs has been hot, having posted at least one stolen base the last five times he's played.

Auburndale pushed their record up to 8-0 with the win, which was their 11th straight on the road dating back to last season. Those road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.2 runs on average over those games. As for Stratford, the defeat snapped their winning streak at seven games and leaves them with a 8-3 record.