Baseball Preview: Western Reserve Blue Devils vs. Rootstown Rovers
The Western Reserve Blue Devils will look to defend their home field on Saturday against the Rootstown Rovers at 11:00 a.m. Both teams come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Rootstown is hoping to do on Saturday what Lowellville couldn't on Wednesday: put an end to Western Reserve's winning streak, which now stands at three games. Everything went Western Reserve's way against Lowellville as Western Reserve made off with a 13-3 win.
Brock Wellman made a big impact no matter where he played. On the mound, he tossed five innings while giving up just two earned (and one unearned) runs off nine hits. Wellman was also big at the plate, scoring a run and stealing a base while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. He has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last four times he's played.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Evan Slaven, who went 2-for-3 with three runs, four RBI, and a triple. Connor Jones was another key contributor, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, Rootstown was able to grind out a solid victory over Coventry on Friday, taking the game 4-1.
Like Western Reserve, Rootstown also got a great game from a two-way player: Joe Weaver. He didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out six over four innings pitched. Weaver was also solid in the batter's box, scoring a run while going 2-for-3.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Austin Biggin, who scored two runs and stole two bases while going 1-for-2.
Western Reserve has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a massive bump to their 6-15 record this season. As for Rootstown, their win bumped their record up to 7-13.
Rootstown's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Western Reserve has hit smart this season, having averaged an OBP of .436. It's a different story for Rootstown, though, as they've only averaged .343. Will they be able to contain Western Reserve's hitters?
Western Reserve might still be hurting after the 7-0 loss they got from Rootstown in their previous meeting back in March of 2018. Can Western Reserve avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
