Baseball Game Preview: Harker Heights Knights vs. Pflugerville Panthers

Harker Heights has gone 6-0-1 against Pflugerville recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Saturday. Harker Heights will head out on the road to challenge Pflugerville at 1:00 p.m. Harker Heights will be looking to extend their current five-game winning streak.

Harker Heights barely beat Bryan the last time the pair played, but that sure wasn't the case this time around. Harker Heights put the hurt on Bryan with a sharp 14-0 victory on Tuesday. The result was nothing new for the Knights, who have now won eight matchups by six runs or more so far this season.

Cooper Reaves made a splash while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and allowed only one hit while striking out eight over 4.2 innings pitched. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than two walks in three consecutive appearances. He was also solid in the batter's box, going 2-for-3 with one double and one RBI. Those two hits gave him a new career-high.

Jonatan Mercado

Runs Batted In (Career)

03/25/25 vs Bryan	2
03/18/25 vs Killeen	1
03/11/25 @ Midway	1
02/24/25 @ Hutto	1

In other batting news, Jonatan Mercado was a standout: he went 2-for-4 with one triple, two RBI, and one run. Those two RBI gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Jordan Wood, who went 2-for-3 with three RBI and one triple.

Harker Heights always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .618. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.

Meanwhile, Friday just wasn't the day for Pflugerville's offense. They came up short against East View on Friday, falling 11-0. The Panthers have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Harker Heights pushed their record up to 12-3-1 with the win, which was their sixth straight at home. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.8 runs on average over those games. As for Pflugerville, their loss dropped their record down to 7-9-1.

Harker Heights came out on top in a nail-biter against Pflugerville when the teams last played back in March of 2024, sneaking past 6-5. The rematch might be a little tougher for Harker Heights since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.