Baseball Game Preview: South Salem Saxons vs. Westview Wildcats

The South Salem Saxons will challenge the Westview Wildcats at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. South Salem is currently enjoying a perfect season and no doubt wants to keep things rolling.

South Salem's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Wednesday. They blew past Liberty 10-0. The Saxons might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 11 games by six runs or more this season.

Luke Erwin looked comfortable as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit over four innings pitched. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two walks in six consecutive appearances.

At the plate, Jackson Buckingham was a standout: he went 2-for-3 with three RBI, one run, and one double. That's the most RBI he has posted since back in April of 2024. Another player making a difference was Teagan Scott, who got on base in all three of his plate appearances with two runs, one stolen base, and one double.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Westview). Everything went their way against McNary on Tuesday as they made off with an 11-1 victory. The win was some much needed relief for the Wildcats as it spelled an end to their three-game losing streak.

South Salem pushed their record up to 15-0 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home. The home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.3 runs on average over those games. As for Westview, the victory got them back to even at 6-6.

South Salem suffered a grim 7-1 defeat to Westview in their previous meeting back in May of 2016. Can the Saxons avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.