Baseball Preview: Paulding Panthers vs. Defiance Bulldogs
After two games on the road, Paulding is heading back home. They will take on the Defiance Bulldogs at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams have allowed few runs on average, (Paulding: 3.9, Defiance: 2.8) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Paulding fought the good fight in their extra-innings matchup against Allen East on Monday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Mustangs by a score of 5-4.
Paulding saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Kane Jones, who scored two runs while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, Defiance scored the most runs they've had all season to find success on Monday. Everything went their way against Fairview as Defiance made off with a 20-8 victory. With that win, Defiance brought their scoring average up to 6.3 runs per game.
Defiance got a massive performance out of Noah Gomez, who went 3-for-4 with a home run, six RBI, and two runs. The team also got some help courtesy of Cohen Stockman, who scored three runs and stole three bases while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances.
Paulding's defeat dropped their record down to 11-8. As for Defiance, their victory was their eighth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 17-4.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Tuesday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Paulding has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 8.8 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Defiance struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.6. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Paulding came up short against Defiance when the teams last played back in April of 2022, falling 5-0. Thankfully for Paulding, Jacob Howard (who didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out ten over five innings pitched) 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
