Baseball Game Preview: Marion Wildcats vs. Central Tigers

The Marion Wildcats will square off against the Central Tigers at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Marion will be looking to extend their current three-game winning streak.

Marion's pitching crew heads into the game hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Thursday. Everything went their way against Carbondale as they made off with a 10-0 win. Considering the Wildcats have won eight matchups by more than five runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.

Meanwhile, Central sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 2-1 victory over St. Pius X on Saturday.

Chapman Ogles spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on three hits and racked up eight Ks. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in eight consecutive appearances.

On the hitting side, Caden Chenoweth was excellent, getting on base in all four of his plate appearances with one triple and one run.

Central has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 12 of their last 14 contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 14-10 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.3 runs on average over those games. As for Marion, their victory bumped their record up to 17-6.

Everything went Marion's way against Central in their previous matchup back in April of 2024, as Marion made off with a 13-1 win. Will the Wildcats repeat their success, or do the Tigers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.