Baseball Game Preview: Ridgeview Panthers vs. Menendez Falcons

vs

Previous Games

03/14/23 - Neutral	9-6 W
03/07/19 - Away	15-0 W
03/06/19 - Home	14-0 W
03/27/18 - Home	11-2 W
03/27/18 - Away	11-2 W
+ 5 more games

Ridgeview is 9-1 against Menendez since March of 2015 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Thursday. The Panthers will face off against the Falcons at 6:30 p.m. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.

Ridgeview will bounce into Thursday's matchup after beating Fleming Island, who they had gone 1-6 against in their seven prior meetings. The Panthers came out on top in a nail-biter against the Golden Eagles on Tuesday, sneaking past 5-4. Winning may never get old, but the Panthers sure are getting used to it with their third in a row.

Waylon Smith looked comfortable as he pitched one inning while giving up no earned runs or hits. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in nine consecutive appearances.

On the hitting side, Ridgeview's victory was truly a team effort as four different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Jachob Kaplitz, who scored a run while going 1-for-3.

Meanwhile, Menendez hadn't done well against Ponte Vedra recently (they were 0-9 in their previous nine matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Tuesday. The Falcons had just enough and edged out the Sharks 5-4. Five seems to be a good number for the Falcons as the team scooped up a win with the same number of runs in their previous game.

The team relied heavily on Tripp Barkoskie, who scored two runs while going 2-for-4. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in doubles (two).

Menendez is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven games. That's provided a nice bump to their 10-11 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.9 runs on average over those games. As for Ridgeview, their record is now 8-10.

Ridgeview beat Menendez 9-6 in their previous meeting back in March of 2023. Will the Panthers repeat their success, or do the Falcons have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.