Baseball Game Preview: Freeburg Midgets vs. Red Bud Musketeers

Freeburg is 9-1 against Red Bud since April of 2017 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Wednesday. The Midgets will be playing in front of their home fans against the Musketeers at 4:30 p.m. Both come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Freeburg's pitching crew heads into the contest hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Tuesday. Everything went their way against East Alton-Wood River as they made off with an 11-0 victory. The Midgets haven't had any issues with the Oilers recently, as the game was their ninth consecutive win against them.

Freeburg got a great performance from Cohen Merrill as he didn't allow a single earned run over five innings pitched. The dominant performance also gave Merrill a new career-high in strikeouts (four).

Ryan Garland

Runs

04/29/25 vs East Alton-Wood River	3
04/24/25 vs Salem	2
04/15/25 @ Breese Central	2
03/19/25 vs Champaign Central	2
04/26/25 @ Gibault Catholic	1
+ 2 more games

At the plate, Ryan Garland was a standout: he got on base in two of his three plate appearances with two stolen bases and three runs. He has become a key player for Freeburg: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 6-8 otherwise. Gabe Lueth was another key player, going 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI.

Freeburg always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .519. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as East Alton-Wood River only posted an OBP of .286.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Red Bud, who bounced back after a loss on the road last Tuesday. They came out on top against Carlyle by a score of 6-1 on Thursday.

The team relied heavily on Derrick Whelan, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI.

Red Bud's victory was their seventh straight at home, which pushed their record up to 14-4. Those home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.3 runs on average over those games. As for Freeburg, their victory bumped their record up to 10-8.

Everything went Freeburg's way against Red Bud in their previous meeting back in April of 2024, as Freeburg made off with a 13-1 win. Will the Midgets repeat their success, or do the Musketeers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.