Baseball Game Preview: Blythewood Bengals vs. West Florence Knights

For the second straight game, Blythewood will face off against West Florence. The Bengals will challenge the Knights at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Blythewood will be looking to extend their current 13-game winning streak.

Blythewood is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of South Carolina's top teams: West Florence, who was ranked sixth at the time (Blythewood was ranked fourth). The Bengals never let the Knights get on the board and left with a 10-0 win on Tuesday. Considering the Bengals have won ten contests by more than five runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.

Johnny Collins made a splash no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and allowed only one hit while striking out six over six innings pitched. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than two hits in three consecutive appearances. He was also big at the plate, scoring a run while going 2-for-3.

Jackson Bottar

Runs (Career)

04/01/25 vs West Florence	3
03/20/25 @ Spring Valley	2
03/14/25 @ A.C. Flora	2
04/17/24 vs Spring Valley	2
04/04/24 vs South Florence	2

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Jackson Bottar, who scored three runs and stole two bases while going 2-for-3. Those three runs gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Macon Leppert, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with two RBI.

Blythewood hit smart and finished the game with only two strikeouts. The team has now struck out at least five strikeouts batters in four consecutive games.

Blythewood's victory was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 13-1. As for West Florence, with the defeat, they broke their four-game winning streak and moved their record to 12-2.

West Florence's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Blythewood hasn't had any issues making contact this season, having earned a batting average of .373. It's a different story for West Florence, though, as they've only averaged .225. Will they be able to contain Blythewood's hitters? Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more baseball content.