Baseball Preview: Fishers Tigers vs. New Palestine Dragons
Fishers is 3-0 against New Palestine since May of 2015, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Fishers Tigers will head out on the road to challenge the New Palestine Dragons at 6:00 p.m. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Fishers comes in on three and New Palestine on eight.
Fishers is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Indiana's top teams: Avon, who was ranked 19th in their home state at the time (Fishers was ranked 15th). Fishers walked away with a 4-1 victory over Avon on Thursday.
Gavin Kuzniewski spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered one run (which was unearned) on four hits and racked up 12 Ks. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't pitched less than five innings in three consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, Fishers saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Caulin Brown, who went 2-for-3 with a double.
Meanwhile, New Palestine put the finishing touches on their tenth blowout victory of the season on Wednesday. They were the clear victor by an 8-2 margin over Delta.
New Palestine also let their pitcher toss all seven innings and he was also dialed-in: Rigg Mahurin gave up just two earned runs on four hits and racked up eight Ks.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Wyatt Matheis, who went 1-for-1 with a home run, three RBI, and two runs. Another player making a difference was Nic Deering, who went 1-for-3 with a triple, two RBI, and a run.
Fishers is on a roll lately: they've won ten of their last 11 games, which provided a massive bump to their 15-7 record this season. As for New Palestine, they pushed their record up to 15-2 with that win, which was their fourth straight at home.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Fishers has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.9 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like New Palestine struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9.1. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Fishers came out on top in a nail-biter against New Palestine when the teams last played back in May of 2019, sneaking past 5-3. Will Fishers repeat their success, or does New Palestine have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
