The Indian Trail Hawks will challenge the Lake Forest Scouts at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. Neither Indian Trail nor Lake Forest posted many runs in their last games, so it might be the pitching crews that decide this one.
Indian Trail took a loss when they played away from home on Wednesday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Friday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Racine Horlick a 1-0 shutout. Give some credit to the fans of both teams: the last four times they've met, the home team has come away the winner.
Not much got past Jack Zeller, who gave up just two hits and racked up nine Ks to keep Racine Horlick off the board. Zeller has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two walks in six consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, Indian Trail saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Cade Minatto, who went 1-for-3 with two stolen bases.
Meanwhile, Lake Forest was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their third straight defeat. They came up short against Libertyville, falling 11-2.
Lake Forest also got a good showing from Andrew Marks, who tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. Marks also tossed no walks, which is notable because the Scouts are 4-1 when he allows at most one walk, but 8-15 otherwise.
At the plate, Bink Hartline made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and went 1-for-3 with one stolen base, one run, and one double. Jack Lamberti also deserves some recognition as he hit his first triple of the season.
Indian Trail pushed their record up to 11-6 with the win, which was their third straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for Lake Forest, their loss dropped their record down to 12-16.
