Baseball Game Preview: St. Stephens Indians vs. North Iredell Raiders

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Previous 6 Games

04/26/24 - Away	3-0 W
04/10/24 - Home	2-1 W
04/18/23 - Home	10-4 W
03/16/23 - Away	6-3 W
04/08/22 - Home	2-0 W
03/15/22 - Away	15-2 W

St. Stephens is a perfect 6-0 against North Iredell since March of 2022 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Tuesday. The Indians will challenge the Raiders at 7:00 p.m. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (St. Stephens 4.1, North Iredell 2.8) so any runs scored will be well earned.

St. Stephens' usually-dominant pitching crew will be looking to make up for Tuesday's struggle, when East Lincoln hitters got past them. The Indians took a 15-11 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Mustangs on Tuesday. Surprisingly, this marked the fourth straight game that the away team has come away the victor.

Meanwhile, North Iredell got the win against Statesville on Monday by a conclusive 14-1. Considering the Raiders have won eight matchups by more than five runs this season, Monday's blowout was nothing new.

Thomas Shumaker was a standout: he scored three runs and stole a base while going 1-for-2. Another player making a difference was Jay Brookshire, who scored a run and stole a base while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances.

North Iredell was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .409. The last time their batting average was this high was back in March.

North Iredell's win was their eighth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 14-3. The home victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.0 runs over those games. As for St. Stephens, with the defeat, they broke their three-game winning streak and moved their record to 11-4.

St. Stephens was able to grind out a solid win over North Iredell in their previous matchup back in April of 2024, winning 3-0. Will the Indians repeat their success, or do the Raiders have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.