The Thornwood Thunderbirds will venture away from home to face off against the Argo Argonauts at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, these teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Thornwood's pitching crew heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Monday. Everything went their way against Thornton Fractional North as they made off with a 12-0 victory. The Thunderbirds might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won five games by ten runs or more this season.
Derrion Howard made a splash while hitting and pitching. He pitched one inning while giving up no earned runs or hits. He also tossed no walks, which is notable because Thornwood is undefeated when he allows at most one walk, but 4-5 otherwise. Howard was even better at the plate, going 2-for-4 with one home run, two runs, and one triple. That home run marked the first that he has launched this season.
In other pitching news, Thornwood got several good pitching performances, but Kordae Montgomery was perhaps the best, going 2-for-3 with five stolen bases, two RBI, and one run. Those five stolen bases gave Montgomery a new career-high.
Daniel Diaz
| 04/21/25 @ Thornton Fractional North | 4 |
| 04/10/25 @ Thornton | 3 |
| 04/14/25 @ Kankakee | 1 |
| 04/11/25 @ Thornton | 1 |
| 04/03/25 vs Hillcrest | 1 |
Howard wasn't the only one making solid contact as four players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Daniel Diaz, who got on base in all four of his plate appearances with four stolen bases, four runs, and one triple. Those four runs gave Diaz a new career-high.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Argo). They blew past Blue Island Eisenhower 19-13 on Tuesday. The Argonauts haven't had any issues with the Cardinals recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive win against them.
Like Thornwood, Argo also got a great game from a two-way player: Scott Forston. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching four innings while giving up just one earned (and four unearned) runs off four hits. Forston was also solid in the batter's box, getting on base in three of his five plate appearances with two runs.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Julio Ruiz-Bravo, who went 2-for-4 with one home run, six RBI, and two runs. Xavier Brant was another key player, getting on base in four of his five plate appearances with four runs, one stolen base, and one RBI.
Argo was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .394. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their batting average total in four consecutive contests.
Thornwood is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 8-5 record this season. As for Argo, their record is now 6-10.
The pitchers for both teams better look sharp on Wednesday as neither team is afraid to steal. Thornwood has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 10.5 stolen bases per game. However, it's not like Argo struggles in that department as they've been averaging 3.7 stolen bases. The only question left is which team can snag more.
Thornwood suffered a grim 11-2 defeat to Argo in their previous matchup back in April of 2017. Can the Thunderbirds avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
