Baseball Preview: James Monroe Mavericks vs. Princeton Tigers
The James Monroe Mavericks will look to defend their home field on Thursday against the Princeton Tigers at 5:30 p.m. James Monroe will be looking to keep their six-game home win streak alive.
James Monroe stacked a tenth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Wednesday. They were the clear victor by a 23-4 margin over Midland Trail.
Peyton Gardinier made a big impact no matter where he played. He didn't allow a single earned run while striking out seven over five innings pitched. Gardinier has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than seven strikeouts in three consecutive pitching appearances. Gardinier was also big at the plate, going 2-for-4 with five RBI, a run, and a double.
In other batting news, James Monroe got a massive performance out of Kadyn Hines, who scored three runs while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Hudson Boggess, who scored three runs and stole a base while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, it was a hard-fought game, but Princeton had to settle for a 5-4 loss against Bluefield on Wednesday.
Lucas Monaghan and Jaxton Monaghan stepped up to the plate in a big way. Monaghan scored a run while going 3-for-4, while Monaghan scored two runs while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances.
James Monroe is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 15-7 record this season. As for Princeton, their defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 9-17.
Princeton's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: James Monroe has hit smart this season, having averaged an OBP of .482. It's a different story for Princeton, though, as they've only averaged .352. Will they be able to contain James Monroe's hitters?
James Monroe suffered a grim 7-1 defeat to Princeton in their previous meeting back in April. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Princeton's Brody Combs, who struck out 12 batters over seven innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits. Now that James Monroe knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
