Baseball Game Preview: West Marion Trojans vs. North Pike Jaguars

The West Marion Trojans will challenge the North Pike Jaguars at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.

West Marion fought the good fight in their extra-innings match against Columbia on Friday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Wildcats by a score of 8-7.

Caden Turnage was huge while hitting and pitching even without the win. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and only two hits while striking out eight over four innings pitched. Turnage was also solid in the batter's box, going 2-for-4 with two stolen bases and two RBI.

In other batting news, Taylor Stringer made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and scored a run and stole a base while going 3-for-5. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in hits (three). Another player making a difference was Braxton Albritton, who went 1-for-4 with two RBI and one double.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for North Pike, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Tuesday. Their pitchers stepped up to hand Vicksburg a 12-0 shutout on Thursday. The high-scoring effort was just what the Jaguars needed considering they were shutout in their previous game.

North Pike let Grayson Reeves and Dawson Bigner loose on the outfield. Reeves scored four runs and stole three bases while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances, while Bigner scored three runs and stole a base while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. The team also got some help courtesy of Ryan Weber, who scored three runs and stole two bases while going 2-for-2.

North Pike always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .643. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Vicksburg only posted an OBP of .077.

West Marion's loss ended a ten-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 1-1. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.2 runs over those games. As for North Pike, the win also got them back to even at 1-1.

West Marion took their victory against North Pike in their previous matchup back in March of 2022 by a conclusive 12-0. Does West Marion have another victory up their sleeve, or will North Pike turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.