Baseball Game Preview: Land O' Lakes Gators vs. Bishop McLaughlin Catholic Hurricanes

The Land O' Lakes Gators will take on the Bishop McLaughlin Catholic Hurricanes at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are strolling into their games after big wins in their previous games.

Land O' Lakes is looking to give their home crowd another W after opening their season at home on Tuesday. They were the clear victor by an 8-1 margin over Wesley Chapel.

Nick Schwartz tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and only a hit while striking out eight over 4.1 innings pitched.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Ethan Barclay, who scored four runs while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. The team also got some help courtesy of Santi Busot, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-4.

Land O' Lakes always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .515. The last time their OBP was this high was back in April of 2024.

Meanwhile, while Bishop McLaughlin Catholic put up plenty of runs on Wednesday, the same can't be said for Hernando. Everything went Bishop McLaughlin Catholic's way against Hernando as Bishop McLaughlin Catholic made off with an 11-0 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Hurricanes.

Bishop McLaughlin Catholic also got a great performance from Cooper Antalek as he didn't allow a single earned run while striking out ten over five innings pitched.

On the hitting side, Dominic Zito was excellent, scoring three runs while going 3-for-3. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in hits (three). Christopher Rodriguez was another key player, going 2-for-3 with one double and one RBI.

Land O' Lakes took their victory against Bishop McLaughlin Catholic in their previous meeting back in March of 2024 by a conclusive 7-1. Does Land O' Lakes have another victory up their sleeve, or will Bishop McLaughlin Catholic turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.