Baseball Preview: Sandalwood Saints vs. Atlantic Coast Stingrays
Sandalwood is 8-2 against Atlantic Coast since April of 2015, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Sandalwood Saints will be playing in front of their home fans against the Atlantic Coast Stingrays at 6:00 p.m. Sandalwood will be looking to keep their three-game home win streak alive.
Sandalwood's hitters might be in the hot seat on Friday considering what happened against Oakleaf on Thursday. They fell just short of the Knights by a score of 2-0. That's two games in a row now that Sandalwood has lost by exactly two runs.
Sandalwood saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Tyler Hurst, who went 1-for-3 with a double. Hurst has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than two walks in three consecutive pitching appearances.
Meanwhile, Atlantic Coast scored the most runs they've had all season to find success on Tuesday. Their pitchers stepped up to hand Andrew Jackson a 20-0 shutout. The result was nothing new for Atlantic Coast, who have now won seven games by seven runs or more so far this season.
Connor Newman looked comfortable as he tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit.
At the plate, Ethan Strickland was a standout: he scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-2. The team also got some help courtesy of Aramis Pabon, who went 3-for-3 with four RBI and a run.
Sandalwood now has a losing record at 10-11. As for Atlantic Coast, they are on a roll lately: they've won 13 of their last 16 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 17-6 record this season.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Sandalwood has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Atlantic Coast struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.2. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Sandalwood came out on top in a nail-biter against Atlantic Coast in their previous meeting back in April of 2022, sneaking past 10-8. Will Sandalwood repeat their success, or does Atlantic Coast have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
