Baseball Game Preview: Lakewood Rangers vs. Lake Catholic Cougars

The Lakewood Rangers will challenge the Lake Catholic Cougars at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The last five games Lakewood has played have been within two runs, so don't be surprised if it's a close one.

If Lakewood beats Lake Catholic with two runs on Wednesday, it's going to be the team's new lucky number: they've won their past two matches with that exact score. The Rangers never let Buckeye get on the board and left with a 2-0 win on Saturday.

Meanwhile, it may have taken eight innings to finish the job, but Lake Catholic ultimately got the result they hoped for on Friday. They came out on top against Perry by a score of 7-4. That's two games straight that the Cougars have won by exactly three runs.

Carson Gilbert looked comfortable as he pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Brayden Mann, who went 2-for-4 with three runs, one double, and one RBI. Those three runs gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was A.J. Trobenter, who went 1-for-5 with two RBI and one double.

Lake Catholic has been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight contests. That somehow still isn't as good as their 18-4 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.9 runs on average over those games. As for Lakewood, their win was their sixth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 17-5.

Lakewood came out on top in a nail-biter against Lake Catholic when the teams last played back in March of 2024, sneaking past 1-0. Do the Rangers have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Cougars turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.