Baseball Preview: Walton Braves vs. Marianna Bulldogs
The Walton Braves will be playing at home against the Marianna Bulldogs at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Walton will be looking to keep their five-game home win streak alive.
On Wednesday, Walton narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past West Florida 3-2.
Walton saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Landon Rhodes, who went 1-for-3 with two RBI. Another player making a difference was Grady Campbell, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, Marianna can now show off ten landslide victories after their most recent contest on Wednesday. Everything went their way against Altha as Marianna made off with an 11-4 win. The victory was nothing new for Marianna as they're now sitting on three straight.
Lane Johnson made a splash no matter where he played. On the mound, he pitched an inning while giving up no earned runs off one hit. Johnson was also big at the plate, going 1-for-2 with a triple and a run.
In other pitching news, Torin Clark-Hussey tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run over five innings pitched. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two walks in four consecutive pitching appearances.
Back at the plate, Connor Barton was excellent, scoring two runs and stealing a base while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. The team also got some help courtesy of JJ Gray, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-2.
Walton is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last eight matches, which provided a massive bump to their 11-11 record this season. As for Marianna, their win bumped their record up to 17-7.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Walton has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 8.2 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Marianna struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.2. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Walton might still be hurting after the 10-2 loss they got from Marianna in their previous meeting back in March. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Marianna's Hunter Smith, who tossed five innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits. Now that Walton knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
