Baseball Game Preview: Normal West Wildcats vs. Lake Zurich Bears

The Normal West Wildcats will challenge the Lake Zurich Bears at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. The two teams are strolling into their matches after big wins in their previous games.

Normal West barely beat Champaign Central the last time the pair played, but that sure wasn't the case this time around. The Wildcats' pitchers stepped up to hand the Maroons an 8-0 shutout on Wednesday. The game was the first time the Wildcats have beaten the Maroons on their field since May 22, 2021.

Chase Reinhart

Base on Balls Against

04/16/25 @ Champaign Central	1
04/11/25 vs Bloomington	2
04/05/25 vs Bradley-Bourbonnais	2
04/03/25 vs Centennial	1
03/25/25 vs Brookland	0
03/17/25 vs Morton	1

Normal West got a great performance from Chase Reinhart as he didn't allow a single earned run while striking out seven over 5.2 innings pitched. Reinhart has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two walks in six consecutive appearances.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Ryder Coone, who scored two runs and stole a base while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in RBI (two). Another player making a difference was Brady Hart, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.

Meanwhile, the third road game was the charm for Lake Zurich, as they earned their first away win of the season. They were the clear victors by a 9-2 margin over Waukegan on Wednesday. The Bears might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won four contests by seven runs or more this season.

Normal West is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 12-5 record this season. As for Lake Zurich, they now have a winning record of 7-6.