Baseball Preview: North Central Panthers vs. Southport Cardinals
North Central has been on the road for three straight, but on Thursday they'll finally head home. They will take on the Southport Cardinals at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
North Central can now show off five landslide victories after their most recent game on Wednesday. They blew past Lawrence Central 8-1.
Tristan Wilson tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and only one hit while striking out six over six innings pitched. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't pitched less than five innings every time he's pitched this season.
On the hitting side, North Central let Rykin Matthias and Abel Flessner loose on the outfield. Matthias scored two runs and stole a base while getting on base in two of his four plate appearances, while Flessner scored two runs and stole two bases while going 1-for-2. The team also got some help courtesy of Stryker Swenson, who scored a run while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, Southport earned a 5-1 victory over Bloomington North on Monday.
Bryce Calvert spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on seven hits and racked up eight Ks.
At the plate, Southport's win was truly a team effort as five different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Jacob Rodriguez, who went 3-for-4 with two RBI. Nick Godsey was another key contributor, scoring two runs while going 2-for-4.
North Central is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last nine matches, which provided a massive bump to their 9-7 record this season. As for Southport, their victory bumped their record up to 7-9.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Thursday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. North Central has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.6 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Southport struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.8. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Everything went North Central's way against Southport when the teams last played back in May of 2023 as North Central made off with a 12-2 win. Will North Central repeat their success, or does Southport have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
