Baseball Preview: Lakewood Ranch Mustangs vs. IMG Academy Blue Ascenders
The Lakewood Ranch Mustangs will be staying on the road on Monday to face off against the IMG Academy Blue Ascenders at 6:30 p.m. Neither of those teams managed to put together many runs in their previous contests, so the offenses might be a little more motivated than usual.
Lakewood Ranch's hitters might be in the hot seat on Monday considering what happened against Berkeley Prep on Thursday. They fell just short of the Buccaneers by a score of 2-0.
Meanwhile, IMG Academy Blue was not able to break out of their rough patch on Wednesday as the team picked up their fifth straight loss. They fell just short of St. Petersburg Catholic by a score of 3-1.
Daniel Horan was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he tossed five innings while giving up just two earned (and one unearned) runs off one hit. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than two hits in three consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, IMG Academy Blue saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was JT Clark, who scored a run while going 2-for-4.
Lakewood Ranch dropped their record down to 10-11-1 with that defeat, which was their fourth straight on the road. As for IMG Academy Blue, their loss dropped their record down to 8-12-1.
Lakewood Ranch was able to grind out a solid win over IMG Academy Blue in their previous matchup back in February of 2021, winning 5-0. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was IMG Academy Blue's Bryce Cruz, who didn't allow a single earned run and only one hit over 4.1 innings pitched. Now that he won't be playing on Monday, will it be that much easier for Lakewood Ranch to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
