Baseball Game Preview: Skutt Catholic SkyHawks vs. Blair Bears

Skutt Catholic has gone 6-1 against Blair recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The SkyHawks will square off against the Bears at 5:00 p.m. Skutt Catholic is coming into the contest hot, having won their last four games.

Skutt Catholic is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Nebraska's top teams: Gross Catholic, who was ranked 17th at the time (Skutt Catholic was ranked sixth). The SkyHawks narrowly escaped with a win as the team sidled past the Cougars 5-4.

Skutt Catholic got a great performance from Bubba Day as he struck out seven batters over six innings while giving up four earned runs off five hits. Day has been consistent recently: he hasn't tossed less than seven strikeouts in three consecutive appearances.

Luke Van Dyke

Runs Batted In (Career)

04/10/25 vs Gross Catholic	2
04/08/25 @ Nebraska City	1
03/31/25 vs Gretna	1
03/29/25 @ Elkhorn North	1
03/21/25 @ Bishop McGuinness	1

At the plate, Luke Van Dyke and Easton Elam did most of the damage at the plate: Van Dyke scored a run while going 1-for-2, while Elam scored two runs while getting on base in two of his three plate appearances. The dominant performance also gave Van Dyke a new career-high in RBI (two).

Meanwhile, after soaring to 11 runs the game before, Blair was a bit more limited in their matchup on Thursday. They came up short against Ralston, falling 8-1.

Skutt Catholic pushed their record up to 11-2 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season. Those home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.5 runs on average over those games. As for Blair, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-8.

Skutt Catholic skirted past Blair 6-5 when the teams last played back in March of 2024. Will the SkyHawks repeat their success, or do the Bears have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.