Baseball Game Preview: Oak Grove Warriors vs. Petal Panthers

For the second straight game, Oak Grove will face off against Petal. The Warriors will face off against the Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Oak Grove is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 8.7 runs per game this season.

Oak Grove is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Mississippi's top teams: Petal, who was ranked 14th at the time (Oak Grove was ranked fourth). The Warriors sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 4-2 victory over the Panthers on Tuesday. Four seems to be a good number for the Warriors as the team scooped up a win with the same number of runs in their previous game.

Maddox Miller

Batters Struck Out

04/15/25 vs Petal	9
04/08/25 vs Brandon	10
04/01/25 @ Northwest Rankin	13
03/25/25 vs Meridian	9
03/18/25 @ Pearl	8
+ 4 more games

Maddox Miller spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered two runs (both of which were unearned) on four hits and racked up nine Ks. He has been consistent for a while: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in nine consecutive appearances.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Eli Wheat, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.

Oak Grove is on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 12 matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 19-5 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.1 runs over those games. As for Petal, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 16-7.

Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Thursday. Oak Grove hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.6 home runs per game. However, it's not like Petal struggles in that department as they've been averaging an even more impressive 0.6 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down. Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more baseball content.