Baseball Game Preview: Unioto Shermans vs. Valley Indians

The Unioto Shermans will face off against the Valley Indians at 5:00 p.m. on Monday. Unioto is coming into the matchup hot, having won their last nine games.

On Friday, Unioto earned an 8-4 win over Lynchburg-Clay.

Unioto got a great performance from Blake Sanders as he pitched six innings while giving up four earned runs off eight hits. Sanders has been consistent recently: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in three consecutive appearances.

Jaxon Zickafoose

Doubles (Career)

05/16/25 vs Lynchburg-Clay	2
05/05/25 vs Westfall	1
04/30/25 vs Southeastern	1
04/26/25 vs Bishop Watterson	1
04/09/25 vs Piketon	1

At the plate, Jaxon Zickafoose was excellent, going 2-for-3 with two runs and two doubles. Those two doubles gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Keegan Snyder, who went 3-for-4 with two runs, one double, and one RBI.

Unioto was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .414. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their batting average total in three consecutive games.

Meanwhile, Valley got the win against Minford on Friday by a conclusive 9-1. The result was nothing new for the Indians, who have now won six contests by six runs or more so far this season.

Valley has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 15-4 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 8.0 runs over those games. As for Unioto, they pushed their record up to 19-6 with the win, which was their third straight at home.

Unioto came out on top in a nail-biter against Valley in their previous meeting back in May of 2024, sneaking past 5-4. Will the Shermans repeat their success, or do the Indians have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.