Baseball Game Preview: Mankato West Scarlets vs. New Ulm Eagles

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Previous Games

04/23/21 - Home	9-0 W
06/01/19 - Home	7-5 W
05/10/19 - Away	3-2 W
06/07/18 - Neutral	1-2 L
05/23/18 - Home	2-6 L
+ 3 more games

Mankato West and New Ulm are an even 4-4 against one another since June of 2016, but likely not for long. The Scarlets will square off against the Eagles at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Mankato West's pitching crew has only allowed 3.2 runs per game this season, so New Ulm's hitters will have their work cut out for them.

Mankato West is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Minnesota's top teams: Owatonna, who was ranked 24th at the time (Mankato West was ranked tenth). The Scarlets walked away with an 8-5 win over the Huskies on Thursday. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Scarlets.

Meanwhile, New Ulm got the win against Worthington on Thursday by a conclusive 14-3. The result was nothing new for the Eagles, who have now won four contests by seven runs or more so far this season.

Cullen Slette looked comfortable as he struck out six batters over three innings while giving up just two earned runs off four hits (and only one walk).

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Cohen Domeier, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with two runs and one RBI. Carson Boe also deserves some recognition as he got his first hit of the season.

New Ulm was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .444. That's the best batting average they've posted all season.

New Ulm has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 10-3 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 10.0 runs over those games. As for Mankato West, their win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 9-2.

Mankato West took their victory against New Ulm in their previous meeting back in April of 2021 by a conclusive 9-0 score. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Scarlets since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.