Baseball Game Preview: Madison Patriots vs. Mountain Heritage Cougars

The Madison Patriots will face off against the Mountain Heritage Cougars at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The two teams are strolling into their contests after big wins in their previous games.

Madison's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Friday. They blew past Avery County 11-0. The game marked the Patriots' most dominant win of the season so far.

Zane Buckner made a splash while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and allowed only two hits over five innings pitched. That's the fewest hits he has allowed since back in April of 2024. He was also big at the plate, scoring a run while going 2-for-3. That run was his first of the season.

In other batting news, Dallas Bartlett was incredible, scoring two runs and stealing a base while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Dalton Honeycutt, who scored a run and stole a base.

Madison always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .531. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Avery County only posted an OBP of .188.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Mountain Heritage). Everything went their way against Owen on Friday as Mountain Heritage made off with a 12-2 victory. The Cougars not only won on Friday, but they posted their biggest win since March 19, 2024.

Madison has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests. That's provided a massive bump to their 3-4 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 7.5 runs over those games. Mountain Heritage's win ended a three-game drought on the road and puts them at 2-4.

Madison came up short against Mountain Heritage in their previous matchup back in April of 2024, falling 18-14. Can Madison avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.