Baseball Preview: Clearwater Valley Rams vs. Grangeville Bulldogs
Clearwater Valley has been on the road for six straight, but on Saturday they'll finally head home. They will take on the Grangeville Bulldogs at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Clearwater Valley is headed into the matchup fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They put the hurt on Nezperce with a sharp 20-3 win on Thursday. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest victory of the season.
Landon Schlieper was a major factor no matter where he played. On the mound, he tossed an inning while giving up no earned runs or hits. Schlieper was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring four runs and stealing two bases while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances.
In other batting news, Carson Schilling was excellent, scoring two runs and stealing a base while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Josh Gardner, who scored two runs and stole a base while getting on base in all two of his plate appearances.
Meanwhile, Grangeville came tearing into Monday's contest with seven straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 10.6 runs) and they left with even more momentum. Everything went their way against the Tigers as they made off with a 13-2 win. That's two games straight that Grangeville has won by exactly 11 runs.
Like Clearwater Valley, Grangeville also got a great game from a two-way player: Cody Klement. He tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. Klement was also big at the plate, getting on base in three of his four plate appearances with a double.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on David Goicoa, who fired off two home runs, five RBI, and three runs while going 3-for-4. Ray Holes was another key contributor, going 2-for-4 with a triple, a stolen base, and a run.
Clearwater Valley has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a massive bump to their 11-12 record this season. As for Grangeville, their victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 19-3.
The pitchers for both teams better look sharp on Saturday as neither team is afraid to steal. Clearwater Valley has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 3.8 stolen bases per game. However, it's not like Grangeville struggles in that department as they've been averaging 3.1. The only question left is which team can snag more.
Clearwater Valley might still be hurting after the 11-2 defeat they got from Grangeville in their previous meeting back in April. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Grangeville's James Argon, who didn't allow a single earned run while striking out six over seven innings pitched. Now that Clearwater Valley knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
