Baseball Game Preview: Mercer Island Islanders vs. Hazen Highlanders

vs

Previous Games

04/08/24 - Away	9-10 L
04/05/24 - Home	6-4 W
04/07/23 - Away	10-0 W
03/22/23 - Home	6-0 W
04/25/22 - Away	11-0 W
+ 2 more games

Mercer Island is 6-1 against Hazen since March of 2018 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Friday. Mercer Island will challenge Hazen at 7:00 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Mercer Island is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They walked away with a 10-5 win over Redmond on Wednesday. The high-scoring effort was just what the Islanders needed considering they were shut out in their previous match.

Brady Dolence was a standout: he scored two runs while going 2-for-4. Ethan Nguyen also deserves some recognition as he got his first hit of the season.

Dolence wasn't the only one working in the hit department: Mercer Island kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 11 hits. That's the most hits they've managed all season.

Meanwhile, Hazen owes their pitching crew a big pat on the back after their performance on Wednesday. Everything went their way against Bellevue as Hazen made off with a 6-0 victory. The Highlanders might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won three games by six runs or more this season.

Logan Grossnickle tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and allowed only two hits over five innings pitched. He also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because Hazen is 2-1 when he allows at most two earned runs, but 1-2 otherwise.

At the plate, Ian Westendorf was excellent, scoring a run and stealing two bases while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Gordon Williamson, who scored a run while going 1-for-3.

The win got Hazen back to even at 3-3. As for Mercer Island, their victory (their first of the season) made their record 1-4-1.