Baseball Game Preview: Tuscaloosa County Wildcats vs. Hillcrest Patriots

For the second straight game, Tuscaloosa County will face off against Hillcrest. The Wildcats will challenge the Patriots at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Tuscaloosa County is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Alabama's top teams: Hillcrest, who was ranked eighth at the time (Tuscaloosa County was ranked 15th). The Wildcats fell 7-3 to the Patriots on Tuesday. Surprisingly, this marked the fifth straight game that the away team has come away the victor.

Tate Pettus was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he tossed six innings while giving up just one earned (and two unearned) runs off seven hits. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than two walks in eight consecutive appearances.

On the hitting side, Kole Nichloson was cooking despite his team's loss, scoring a run while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances. Drew Keller was another key player, scoring a run while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances.

Hillcrest has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 19-7 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.6 runs on average over those games. As for Tuscaloosa County, their defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 19-10.