Baseball Game Preview: Charleroi Cougars vs. McGuffey Highlanders

The Charleroi Cougars will head out on the road to face off against the McGuffey Highlanders at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.

Charleroi proved they can win big last Tuesday (they won by ten) and on Tuesday they proved they can win the close ones too. They had just enough and edged out Seton LaSalle 2-1. The Cougars haven't had any issues with the Rebels recently, as the game was their fifth consecutive win against them.

Meanwhile, it was close, but on Thursday McGuffey sidestepped Fort Cherry for a 10-9 victory.

The team relied heavily on Austin Johnson, who scored three runs and stole three bases while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances. Those three runs gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Wyatt Hildreth, who scored two runs and stole four bases while going 2-for-3.

McGuffey has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 4-3-1 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 6.5 runs over those games. As for Charleroi, their victory bumped their record up to 4-1.

Charleroi came out on top in a nail-biter against McGuffey in their previous meeting back in April of 2022, sneaking past 6-4. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Cougars since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.