Baseball Game Preview: McKinley Red Dragons vs. Mineral Ridge Rams

The McKinley Red Dragons are taking a road trip to challenge the Mineral Ridge Rams at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. McKinley will be strutting in after a victory while Mineral Ridge will be coming in after a loss.

Having struggled with three defeats in a row, McKinley turned things around against Liberty on Friday. They walked away with a 7-2 win over the Leopards.

Joseph Lehman

Base on Balls Against

05/02/25 @ Liberty	2
04/22/25 vs East	1
04/22/25 vs East	1
04/04/25 vs McDonald	2

McKinley got a great performance from Joseph Lehman as he tossed five innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off three hits. Lehman has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than two walks in four consecutive appearances.

On the hitting side, AJ Yost was excellent, going 2-for-3 with one run, one double, and one RBI. Brixton Gilmour was another key player, going 2-for-3 with one run and one RBI.

Meanwhile, Tuesday just wasn't the day for Mineral Ridge's offense. They came up short against Jackson-Milton on Tuesday, falling 10-0. The pitching woes were uncharacteristic for the Rams, who until this contest were averaging 3.87 runs allowed.

McKinley's victory bumped their record up to 6-13. As for Mineral Ridge, their loss was their first in the conference, dropping their conference record down to 9-1 and their overall record down to 12-3.

McKinley came out on top in a nail-biter against Mineral Ridge in their previous meeting back in May of 2024, sneaking past 4-3. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Red Dragons since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.