Baseball Game Preview: Center Roughriders vs. White Oak Roughnecks

The Center Roughriders will head out on the road to face off against the White Oak Roughnecks at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. Center has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the contest with three straight defeats, while White Oak will come in with seven straight victories.

Center came into this matchup off a tough six-run loss two weeks ago. This time they kept things ultra-competitive, but unfortunately the final result was the same. They fell just short of Longview by a score of 3-1 last Thursday.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask White Oak). Everything went their way against Arp on Friday as White Oak made off with a 17-8 win. The result was nothing new for the Roughnecks, who have now won five matches by six runs or more so far this season.

Jaxsen Ludlow was a major factor while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching 1.2 innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in seven consecutive appearances. He was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 4-for-5. That's the most hits he has posted over his last 12 games.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Tyson McKinney, who scored two runs while getting on base in all five of his plate appearances. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in hits (three). Brady Greenwood was another key player, scoring two runs while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances.

White Oak always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .659. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.

Center's defeat dropped their record down to 5-8. As for White Oak, their record now sits at 13-2-1.