Baseball Game Preview: Del Norte Warriors vs. McKinleyville Panthers

The Del Norte Warriors will square off against the McKinleyville Panthers at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. McKinleyville took a loss in their last game and will be looking to turn the tables on Del Norte, who comes in off a win.

McKinleyville will challenge a team with plenty of momentum: Del Norte extended their winning streak to three on Wednesday. The Warriors were the clear victors by a 15-3 margin over Fortuna. Considering the Warriors have won seven contests by more than five runs this season, Wednesday's blowout was nothing new.

Meanwhile, McKinleyville has relied on a stalwart pitchers averaging 3.67 runs allowed per game, but that average took a hit on Wednesday. They lost 12-2 to Eureka. Having soared to a lofty 14 runs in the game before, the Panthers couldn't push the score so high this time.

McKinleyville saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Bryce Sargent, who went 1-for-2 with one stolen base and one run.

Del Norte pushed their record up to 14-5-1 with the win, which was their third straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for McKinleyville, their defeat ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 16-5.

Del Norte came out on top in a nail-biter against McKinleyville in their previous matchup two weeks ago, sneaking past 3-1. Will the Warriors repeat their success, or do the Panthers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.