Baseball Game Preview: St. Francis de Sales Knights vs. Clay Eagles

St. Francis de Sales is 1-9 against Clay since April of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Knights will look to defend their home field against the Eagles at 5:00 p.m.

St. Francis de Sales is headed into the game having just suffered their biggest defeat since May 2, 2024 on Wednesday. They lost 11-3 to St. Mary's Prep. The Knights have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

St. Francis de Sales saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Brady Mitchey, who scored a run while going 1-for-2. Ethan Heigert also deserves some recognition as he brought in his first RBI of the season.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Clay). Their pitcher stepped up to hand Springfield an 11-0 shutout on Wednesday. The victory continues a trend for the Eagles in their matchups with the Blue Devils: they've now won five in a row.

Darin Fussell made a splash while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit while striking out eight over seven innings pitched. Those eight strikeouts gave him a new career-high. He was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing a base while getting on base in two of his five plate appearances.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Hudson Byers, who went 2-for-5 with two stolen bases, five RBI, and one run. Those two stolen bases gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Ian DeWitt, who scored two runs and stole two bases while going 1-for-3.

Clay always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .523. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Springfield only posted an OBP of .167.

St. Francis de Sales' loss dropped their record down to 5-3. As for Clay, they now have a winning record of 4-3.

St. Francis de Sales couldn't quite get it done against Clay in their previous matchup back in April of 2024 as they fell 7-3. Can the Knights avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.