Baseball Game Preview: Plant City Raiders vs. Newsome Wolves

The Plant City Raiders will challenge the Newsome Wolves at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Plant City 2.9, Newsome 2.7) so any runs scored will be well earned.

Plant City is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Strawberry Crest a 3-0 shutout. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Raiders.

The result came thanks to Hagan Smith's shutout, as he gave up just five hits and racked up six Ks.

At the plate, Drew Cothren was excellent, going 1-for-2 with one triple and one run.

Meanwhile, it may have taken nine innings to finish the job, but Newsome ultimately got the result they hoped for on Tuesday. They won by a run and slipped past Alonso 3-2. The victory continues a trend for the Wolves in their matchups with the Ravens: they've now won three in a row.

ROBBIE DIPIETRO looked comfortable as he struck out seven batters over 2.1 innings while giving up no earned runs or hits (and only one walk). Those seven strikeouts gave him a new career-high.

On the hitting side, Newsome saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was OCEAN COZART, who scored two runs while going 1-for-4.

Newsome's win bumped their record up to 18-6. As for Plant City, their victory bumped their record up to 16-11.

Plant City skirted past Newsome 2-0 in their previous meeting back in March. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Raiders since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.