Baseball Game Preview: Pleasant Plains Cardinals vs. PORTA/Ashland-Chandlerville Central Bluejays

Pleasant Plains is 8-2 against PORTA/Ashland-Chandlerville Central since May of 2015 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Thursday. The Cardinals will be playing at home against the Bluejays at 4:30 p.m. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Pleasant Plains 2.2, PORTA/Ashland-Chandlerville Central 3.5) so any runs scored will be well earned.

On Tuesday, Pleasant Plains didn't have quite enough to beat Maroa-Forsyth and fell 4-3. The Cardinals haven't had much luck with the Trojans recently, as the team has come up short the last five times they've met.

Cale Hatcher was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he didn't allow a single earned run while striking out nine over 5.2 innings pitched. What's more, he gave up only zero walks, the fewest he's had since back in May of 2024.

Charlie Severino

Stolen Base

04/15/25 @ Maroa-Forsyth	2
04/14/25 vs Springfield Southeast	1
04/12/25 vs Bishop McNamara	1

On the hitting side, Charlie Severino made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and scored a run and stole two bases while going 3-for-3. He has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last three times he's played.

Meanwhile, PORTA/Ashland-Chandlerville Central's rock-solid pitchers showed up for the team's third consecutive shutout on Tuesday. They never let Athens get on the board and left with a 2-0 victory.

PORTA/Ashland-Chandlerville Central's win was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 10-4-1. The home victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 6.3 runs over those games. As for Pleasant Plains, their loss was their first in the conference, dropping their conference record down to 2-1 and their overall record down to 11-3.

Pleasant Plains beat PORTA/Ashland-Chandlerville Central 5-0 in their previous meeting back in April of 2024. Do the Cardinals have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Bluejays turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.