Baseball Preview: McCall-Donnelly Vandals vs. Fruitland Grizzlies
McCall-Donnelly is 0-7 against Fruitland since April of 2021 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Monday. The McCall-Donnelly Vandals will play host again on Monday to welcome the Fruitland Grizzlies, where first pitch is scheduled at 4:00 p.m.
Things were looking good for McCall-Donnelly after they put the first points on the board on Wednesday, but unfortunately for them things went downhill from there. They took a 9-5 hit to the loss column at the hands of Weiser.
Owen Naugle put in work while hitting and pitching. He struck out nine batters over five innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off five hits. Naugle was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing two bases while going 2-for-4.
Naugle wasn't the only one making solid contact as four players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Cole Naugle, who scored a run while going 3-for-4.
Even though they lost, McCall-Donnelly didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with ten strikeouts. This was only their 11th loss (out of 13 games) when they post five or more strikeouts.
Meanwhile, Fruitland faced Kimberly in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Thursday. Fruitland walked away with a 10-5 victory over Kimberly. Winning may never get old, but Fruitland sure is getting used to it with their fifth in a row.
McCall-Donnelly's defeat dropped their record down to 2-16. As for Fruitland, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won ten of their last 11 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 15-5 record this season.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Monday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. McCall-Donnelly has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 6.8 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Fruitland struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.3. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
McCall-Donnelly might still be hurting after the 11-2 loss they got from Fruitland in their previous matchup on April 10th. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Fruitland's Nate Grosvenor, who struck out nine batters over six innings while giving up just two earned runs off six hits (and not a single walk). Now that McCall-Donnelly knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
