The East Wilkes Cardinals will square off against the Thomasville Bulldogs at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
On Wednesday, East Wilkes needed a bit of extra time to put away Starmount. They had just enough and edged out the Rams 6-5. Six seems to be a good number for the Cardinals as the team scooped up a win with the same number of runs in their previous game.
Dalton Wood tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run over 4.2 innings pitched.
Meanwhile, after only one run in their last contest, Thomasville made sure to put some runs up on the board against Lexington on Wednesday. The Bulldogs blew past the Yellowjackets 13-3. The Bulldogs might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won seven games by ten runs or more this season.
Leonel Guzman made a big impact no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, striking out six batters over five innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off one hit. That's the most strikeouts he has posted since back in March of 2024. He was also big at the plate, going 2-for-3 with three runs, one stolen base, and one double. He has become a key player for Thomasville: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 6-11 otherwise.
In other batting news, Travail Barnes and Elijah McNeair did most of the damage at the plate: Barnes went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases, two runs, and two doubles, while McNeair got on base in all four of his plate appearances with four stolen bases and three runs. Barnes is becoming a predictor of Thomasville's success: when he posts at least two runs the team is 8-1 (and 2-10 when he doesn't). Another player making a difference was Mkyel Duncan, who got on base in two of his four plate appearances with four stolen bases and two runs.
Thomasville always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .571. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Lexington only posted an OBP of .423.
The victory made it two in a row for East Wilkes and bumps their season record up to 13-6. They've had to fight for that success though, as they only beat their opponents by an average of 1.5 runs across that stretch. As for Thomasville, their win bumped their record up to 10-11.
Everything went East Wilkes' way against Thomasville in their previous meeting back in April of 2024, as East Wilkes made off with a 10-0 victory. Do the Cardinals have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Bulldogs turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
