The Northmont Thunderbolts will face off against the Miamisburg Vikings at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
On Wednesday, Northmont sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 2-1 victory over Russia. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Thunderbolts.
Brady Whittaker spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered a run (which was unearned) on two hits and racked up six Ks.
On the hitting side, Drake Sauber was excellent, going 1-for-2 with one home run.
Meanwhile, it's playoff time, and Miamisburg had no trouble coming through when it counted. Their pitchers stepped up to hand Sidney a 7-0 shutout on Thursday.
Kaiden Trent was a major factor while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and allowing only one hit over six innings pitched. He also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because Miamisburg is 3-1 when he allows at most one earned run, but 9-12 otherwise. Trent was also solid in the batter's box, going 1-for-2 with two stolen bases, one run, and one RBI. Those two stolen bases gave him a new career-high.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Logan Walker, who went 2-for-4 with two RBI, one run, and one double. Bryce Vaughn was another key player, going 2-for-3 with one stolen base, one run, and one RBI.
Miamisburg was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .417. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Sidney only posted a batting average of .125.
Miamisburg has been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight games. That's provided a massive bump to their 12-13 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for Northmont, their victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 13-12-1.
Northmont came out on top in a nail-biter against Miamisburg in their previous meeting last Thursday, sneaking past 2-1. Do the Thunderbolts have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Vikings turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
