Baseball Game Preview: Pine Forest Trojans vs. Hoke County Bucks

The Pine Forest Trojans are taking a road trip to challenge the Hoke County Bucks at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Pine Forest has struggled recently with 13 losses in a row, while Hoke County will arrive with three straight wins.

Pine Forest is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They fell 13-10 to Hoke County on Tuesday. Even if the Trojans couldn't come away with the victory, the high-scoring effort was a great turnaround for their hitters, which had struggled int the games prior.

For Hoke County's part, James Tatum made a splash no matter where he played. On the mound, he struck out seven batters over six innings while giving up three earned (and six unearned) runs off five hits. Tatum was also big at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, two runs, and two doubles. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in RBI (two).

In other batting news, Jayden Hollingsworth was incredible, going 3-for-5 with four stolen bases, two runs, and one RBI. He has become a key player for Hoke County: the team is 4-1 when he posts at least three hits, but 2-6 otherwise. Rob Wright was another key player, getting on base in three of his five plate appearances with two stolen bases and two runs.

The win got Hoke County back to even at 7-7. As for Pine Forest, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-11.