Baseball Game Preview: Inspiration Academy Lions vs. IMG Academy Gold Ascenders

The Inspiration Academy Lions will head out on the road to face off against the IMG Academy Gold Ascenders at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Inspiration Academy will be strutting in after a win while IMG Academy Gold will be coming in after a loss.

Inspiration Academy picked up another tournament win last Wednesday. They put the hurt on Auburndale with a sharp 8-2 victory. The result was nothing new for the Lions, who have now won six matchups by six runs or more so far this season.

Kolten Harris tossed a big game, tossing six innings while giving up just two earned runs off four hits.

Oakley Shirk

Runs Batted In (Career)

03/19/25 vs Auburndale	4
03/18/25 vs Mulberry	1
03/12/25 vs Avon Park	1
03/03/25 vs Central Pointe Christian Academy	1
02/26/25 @ IMG Academy Royal	1

On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Oakley Shirk, who went 2-for-4 with one home run, four RBI, and one double. Those four RBI gave him a new career-high. Jack Araujo also deserves some recognition as he scored his first run of the season.

Meanwhile, IMG Academy Gold was not able to break out of their rough patch on Thursday as the team picked up their third straight defeat. They were a single run away from ending the streak, but they lost a 5-4 heartbreaker at the hands of Pembroke Pines Charter. That's two games in a row now that the Ascenders have lost by just one run.

IMG Academy Gold saw eight different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Cade Hudmon, who scored a run while going 2-for-4.

Inspiration Academy is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games. That's provided a nice bump to their 11-4 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.3 runs on average over those games. IMG Academy Gold now has a losing record of 8-9.