Baseball Game Preview: Rock Island Rocks vs. Alleman Pioneers

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Previous Games

05/07/25 - Away	1-2 L
05/05/25 - Home	2-5 L
05/06/24 - Neutral	10-0 W
04/27/24 - Away	12-0 W
04/27/24 - Away	7-0 W
+ 5 more games

Rock Island is 8-2 against Alleman since April of 2022 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Friday. The Rocks will square off against the Pioneers at 6:00 p.m. Rock Island has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the match with five straight losses, while Alleman will come in with three straight wins.

Rock Island came up short against Galesburg on Wednesday, falling 11-5.

Meanwhile, Alleman made easy work of East Dubuque on Thursday and carried off a 10-4 victory.

Cael Kuster made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he tossed four innings while giving up just one earned (and three unearned) runs off three hits. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one walk in three consecutive appearances. He was also big at the plate, going 1-for-3 with one triple, one run, and one RBI.

In other pitching news, Kelly Honert looked comfortable as he tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs off four hits. He has been consistent for a while: he hasn't given up more than two walks in 13 consecutive appearances.

Back at the plate, the team relied heavily on Will Bowers, who got on base in two of his four plate appearances with four stolen bases and three runs. Those four stolen bases gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Gavin Wilburn, who went 1-for-4 with three stolen bases, two RBI, and one run.

Alleman's win was their eighth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 25-9. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.6 runs on average over those games. As for Rock Island, their defeat dropped their record down to 9-15.