Baseball Game Preview: Clover Blue Eagles vs. Rock Hill Bearcats

Clover and Rock Hill are an even 5-5 against one another since April of 2019, but likely not for long. The Clover Blue Eagles will host the Rock Hill Bearcats at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. The two teams are strolling into their matchups after big wins in their previous games.

Clover is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of South Carolina's top teams: Blacksburg, who was ranked 20th at the time (Clover was ranked 15th). Clover's pitcher stepped up to hand Blacksburg a 10-0 shutout on Monday. The Blue Eagles haven't had any issues with the Wildcats recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive victory against them.

Aiden Smith

Batters Struck Out (Career)

03/03/25 vs Blacksburg	13
04/23/24 vs Spring Valley	9
04/15/24 @ Rock Hill	9
03/08/24 @ Northwestern	8
03/25/24 vs Blythewood	6

Aiden Smith tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and allowed only two hits while striking out 13 over five innings pitched. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in strikeouts.

On the hitting side, TJ McCluney was excellent, scoring two runs and stealing Two bases. while getting on base in two of his four plate appearances. Those stolen bases were his first of the season. Kieran Noel was another key player, scoring two runs while going 1-for-2.

Meanwhile, Rock Hill won against Central on Monday with 14 runs and they decided to stick to that run total again on Thursday. Rock Hill put the hurt on Andrew Jackson with a sharp 14-0 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Bearcats.

Walker Thomason made a splash no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and allowed only two hits while striking out eight over six innings pitched. Thomason was also big at the plate, going 2-for-3 with one home run and seven RBI.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Anthony Tobias, who scored three runs while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Gabe Cassidy, who scored a run while going 1-for-4.

The victory got Clover back to even at 2-2. As for Rock Hill, they now have a winning record of 2-1.