Baseball Game Preview: Osseo-Fairchild Thunder vs. Eleva-Strum Cardinals

The Osseo-Fairchild Thunder will face off against the Eleva-Strum Cardinals at 5:00 p.m. on Monday. Osseo-Fairchild's pitching crew has only allowed 2.6 runs per game this season, so Eleva-Strum's hitters will have their work cut out for them.

Osseo-Fairchild's pitching crew heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Friday. They blew past Augusta 17-0. Considering the Thunder have won six contests by more than six runs this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Eleva-Strum, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Tuesday. They came out on top against Independence/Gilmanton on Friday by a score of 5-4 (the very same score they lost by in their prior game). The Cardinals haven't had any issues with the Indees recently, as the game was their seventh consecutive victory against them.

The team relied heavily on Calvin Barneson, who went 2-for-3 with two runs and one stolen base. He has become a key player for Eleva-Strum: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 2-9 otherwise.

Eleva-Strum always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .515. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Independence/Gilmanton only posted an OBP of .355.

The win made it two in a row for Osseo-Fairchild and bumps their season record up to 13-4. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered a grand total of 4 runs in those games. As for Eleva-Strum, their win bumped their record up to 5-9.

Everything went Osseo-Fairchild's way against Eleva-Strum in their previous meeting back in April, as Osseo-Fairchild made off with an 11-1 victory. Will the Thunder repeat their success, or do the Cardinals have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.