Baseball Preview: East Ridge Knights vs. Lake Minneola Hawks
The East Ridge Knights will head out on the road to face off against the Lake Minneola Hawks at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the pair will really light up the scoreboard.
East Ridge is headed into the contest fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They never let Wildwood onto the board and left with a 19-0 win on Monday. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest victory of the season.
Cale Keene made a big impact no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, keeping things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out six over four innings pitched. Keene has been consistent recently: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in three consecutive pitching appearances. Keene was also solid in the batter's box, scoring a run while going 3-for-5.
In other pitching news, Brendan Reynolds looked comfortable as he tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits.
Back at the plate, Bryan Estrella was a standout: he scored three runs while going 2-for-2. Adrian Pag?n was another key contributor, scoring three runs while going 4-for-5.
Meanwhile, Lake Minneola had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 5.5 runs), and they went ahead and made it five on Tuesday. They put the hurt on the Eagles with a sharp 11-1 win. The result was nothing new for Lake Minneola, who have now won seven matches by seven runs or more so far this season.
Brayden Richter looked comfortable as he tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits.
On the hitting side, Lake Minneola got a big performance out of Rylan Zinn, who scored two runs and stole two bases while going 2-for-3. Another player making a difference was Bryan Castellanos, who scored a run and stole a base while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances.
East Ridge's victory ended a four-game drought on the road and puts them at 7-13. As for Lake Minneola, they pushed their record up to 16-5 with that win, which was their fourth straight at home.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Thursday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. East Ridge has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.1 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Lake Minneola struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
East Ridge skirted past Lake Minneola 5-4 when the teams last played back in March. The rematch might be a little tougher for East Ridge since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
