Baseball Preview: Willow Spring Storm vs. Harnett Central Trojans
The Willow Spring Storm will look to defend their home field on Wednesday against the Harnett Central Trojans at 4:30 p.m. Both teams come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Willow Spring will roll into the match after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up two runs on Friday, then bounced right back against Cleveland on Tuesday. Willow Spring blew past Cleveland 10-2.
Willow Spring got a great performance from Austin Fletcher as he pitched six innings while giving up just one earned run off one hit. Fletcher has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than two walks in five consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Jake Pereira, who scored a run and stole three bases while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances. Luke Howell was another key contributor, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 2-for-4.
Meanwhile, Harnett Central had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 12 runs), and they went ahead and made it five on Tuesday. They had just enough and edged the Jaguars out 3-2. That's two games straight that Harnett Central has won by just one run.
Harnett Central's victory was truly a team effort as five different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Brantley Champion, who went 2-for-3 with two RBI.
Willow Spring's win bumped their record up to 9-7. As for Harnett Central, they are on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Wednesday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Willow Spring has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Harnett Central struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.8. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Willow Spring beat Harnett Central 9-4 when the teams last played back in March. Will Willow Spring repeat their success, or does Harnett Central have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
