Baseball Game Preview: Archbishop Hannan Hawks vs. Hammond Tornadoes

Archbishop Hannan has gone 7-2 against Hammond recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Thursday. The Archbishop Hannan Hawks will welcome the Hammond Tornadoes at 6:00 p.m. Archbishop Hannan's hitters haven't had much luck over their past four matchups, but Thursday's game will give them a chance to turn things around.

Archbishop Hannan took a loss when they played away from home on Monday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Wednesday. They never let Fontainebleau get on the board and left with a 2-0 victory. The win was a breath of fresh air for the Hawks as it put an end to their three-game losing streak.

Not much got past Patrick Kennedy, who gave up just two hits and racked up nine Ks to keep Fontainebleau off the board. That's the most strikeouts Kennedy has posted since back in February.

Owen Stempel

Runs (Career)

03/05/25 vs Fontainebleau	2
02/20/25 vs Northlake Christian	1
02/10/25 vs French Settlement	1
04/27/24 @ Lafayette Christian Academy	1
04/26/24 @ Lafayette Christian Academy	1

On the hitting side, Archbishop Hannan's victory was truly a team effort as five different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Owen Stempel, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-3. The dominant performance gave Stempel a new career-high in runs.

Meanwhile, Hammond was not able to break out of their rough patch on Monday as the team picked up their fifth straight defeat. They fell 10-5 to Albany.

Reid Hoover and Donald Weber did some serious damage despite the final result: Hoover scored a run while going 1-for-3, while Weber scored two runs while going 1-for-3. Hoover also put up a double, which was his first of the season.

Hammond's loss dropped their record down to 2-11. As for Archbishop Hannan, their win bumped their record up to 7-10.

Archbishop Hannan came out on top in a nail-biter against Hammond in their previous matchup back in March of 2021, sneaking past 1-0. Will Archbishop Hannan repeat their success, or does Hammond have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.