Baseball Game Preview: Normal West Wildcats vs. Bloomington Purple Raiders

The Normal West Wildcats will venture away from home to square off against the Bloomington Purple Raiders at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Normal West 3.2, Bloomington 4) so any runs scored will be well earned.

It was a proper cat-fight when Normal West challenged Urbana on Monday. The Wildcats' pitchers stepped up to hand the Tigers an 18-0 shutout. That's two games straight that the Wildcats have won by exactly 18 runs.

Ryder Coone

Batters Struck Out (Career)

04/07/25 @ Urbana	7
03/25/25 vs Brookland	3
03/18/25 vs Rochester	3
03/31/25 @ Centennial	1

Ryder Coone looked comfortable as he struck out seven batters over 2.2 innings while giving up no earned runs or hits (and only one walk). Those seven strikeouts gave him a new career-high.

At the plate, Normal West got a massive performance out of Chase Knuth, who went 2-for-3 with one home run, three RBI, and two runs. Those three RBI gave Knuth a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Drew Hart, who scored a run and stole a base while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances.

Normal West kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 11 hits. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 4.4 hits per game earlier this season, but in their last 15 matchups they've averaged 10.

Meanwhile, it may have taken eight innings to finish the job, but Bloomington ultimately got the result they hoped for on Monday. They had just enough and edged out Peoria Notre Dame 4-3. The victory was nothing new for the Purple Raiders as they're now sitting on six straight.

The win made it two in a row for Normal West and bumps their season record up to 9-3. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered a grand total of 1 runs in those games. As for Bloomington, their record is now 7-2.

Normal West took their win against Bloomington in their previous meeting back in April of 2024 by a conclusive 12-3 score. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Wildcats since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.