Baseball Game Preview: Perryville Pirates vs. Herculaneum Black Cats

The Perryville Pirates will venture away from home to challenge the Herculaneum Black Cats at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Perryville is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. Everything went their way against Delta on Tuesday as they made off with an 11-1 win. The team's explosion at the plate also rewarded the Pirates with their most commanding win of the season.

Evan Hayden spent all six innings played on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on four hits.

At the plate, Bryce Weber was a standout: he got on base in all four of his plate appearances with six stolen bases, two runs, and one double. Those two runs gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Gideon Stueve, who went 2-for-3 with four stolen bases and three runs.

Perryville always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .611. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.

Meanwhile, Herculaneum posted their closest victory since April 16th on Wednesday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Crystal City, sneaking past 2-1. The Black Cats haven't had any issues with the Hornets recently, as the game was their third consecutive win against them.

The victory made it two in a row for Perryville and bumps their season record up to 8-9. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered a grand total of 2 run in those games. As for Herculaneum, their record now sits at 9-11.

Perryville took their victory against Herculaneum when the teams last played back in May of 2024 by a conclusive 16-0 score. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Pirates since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.