Baseball Game Preview: Mandeville Skippers vs. Catholic Bears

The Mandeville Skippers will venture away from home to face off against the Catholic Bears at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average, (Mandeville 3.8, Catholic 2.5) so any runs scored will be well earned.

Mandeville is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Louisiana's top teams: Catholic, who was ranked second at the time (Mandeville was ranked 21st). Mandeville fell 6-2 to Catholic on Thursday.

For Catholic's part, Lucas Lawrence tossed a big game, pitching five innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off six hits. Lawrence has been consistent : he hasn't given up more than one earned run in five consecutive appearances.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Jack Ruckert, who fired off two home runs while going 2-for-4. Those two home runs gave him a new career-high. Andrew Clapinski was another key player, going 1-for-3 with one home run and two RBI.

Catholic lost a few balls and finished the game with three home runs. That's the most home runs they've managed all season.

The win was the fifth in a row for Catholic, bringing their record for this year to 14-3. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.8 runs on average over those games. As for Mandeville, their defeat dropped their record down to 11-9.