Baseball Game Preview: Cranston East Thunderbolts vs. Prout Crusaders

The Cranston East Thunderbolts will square off against the Prout Crusaders at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Cranston East has struggled recently with six defeats in a row, while Prout will arrive with four straight wins.

On Thursday, Cranston East came up short against Cumberland and fell 9-4.

Cranston East saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Ethan Torres, who went 2-for-4 with one stolen base and one run. That stolen base was Torres' first of the season. Another was Joshua Gillen, who went a perfect 3-for-3 with one run.

Meanwhile, Prout faced St. Raphael Academy in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Wednesday. The Crusaders walked away with a 10-6 victory over the Saints.

The team relied heavily on Dylan Delgado, who went 1-for-3 with two runs and one double.

Prout pushed their record up to 4-4 with the win, which was their third straight on the road. The road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.0 runs on average over those games. As for Cranston East, their loss dropped their record down to 1-8.

Cranston East beat Prout 5-1 in their previous matchup back in April of 2016. Will the Thunderbolts repeat their success, or do the Crusaders have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.