Baseball Game Preview: Sycamore Aviators vs. Little Miami Panthers

The Sycamore Aviators will head out on the road to face off against the Little Miami Panthers at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.

Having struggled with five losses in a row, Sycamore turned things around against Batavia on Thursday. They had just enough and edged out the Bulldogs 3-2.

Little Miami let Lakota West stack four runs on them in the fourth inning on Thursday but luckily Little Miami prevailed anyway. The Panthers came out on top in a nail-biter against the Firebirds, sneaking past 7-6. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Panthers have posted since April 21st.

Blake Longbottom looked comfortable as he pitched three innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits.

On the hitting side, Ian Arthur was excellent, going 3-for-4 with two runs and one double. Those three hits gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Ian Sukup, who went 2-for-3 with one run and one double.

Little Miami is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 18-7 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.2 runs over those games. As for Sycamore, their record now sits at 9-14.