Baseball Preview: Valmeyer Pirates vs. Mater Dei Knights
The Valmeyer Pirates will stay at home for another game and welcome the Mater Dei Knights at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Valmeyer is strutting in with some hitting muscle, as they've averaged 7.3 runs per game this season.
On Thursday, it was a hard-fought contest, but Valmeyer had to settle for a 7-6 defeat against Steeleville. Valmeyer has struggled against Steeleville recently, as their game on Thursday was their third consecutive lost matchup.
Luke Blackwell made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and scored two runs and stole two bases while getting on base in two of his four plate appearances. Troy Neff was another key contributor, scoring two runs while going 2-for-3.
Meanwhile, Mater Dei had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 3 runs), and they went ahead and made it three on Monday. They came out on top against the Warriors by a score of 10-5. The high-flying hitting performance was a huge turnaround for Mater Dei considering their two-run performance the matchup before.
Chase Zurliene tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and only one hit while striking out six over 4.2 innings pitched.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Gabe Schlimme, who scored two runs and stole two bases while going 3-for-4. Another player making a difference was Wil Harris, who scored two runs while getting on base in all five of his plate appearances.
Valmeyer's loss dropped their record down to 12-9. As for Mater Dei, their victory ended a four-game drought on the road and puts them at 6-14.
Valmeyer might still be hurting after the 8-1 defeat they got from Mater Dei in their previous meeting back in April of 2023. Thankfully for Valmeyer, Cole Peppenhorst (who tossed 4.1 innings while giving up just one earned run off four hits) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
