Baseball Preview: The First Academy Royals vs. South Lake Eagles
The First Academy is 4-0 against South Lake since February of 2021, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Thursday. The First Academy Royals will be playing at home against the South Lake Eagles at 7:00 p.m. The two teams have allowed few runs on average, (The First Academy: 3.1, South Lake: 3.8) so any runs scored will be well earned.
In what's become a running theme this season, The First Academy gave their fans yet another huge victory on Tuesday. They never let Edgewater onto the board and left with an 18-0 win. While fans of The First Academy might be used to big wins, the 18-run margin marked the team's biggest victory yet this season.
Josh Garcia looked comfortable as he tossed three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit (he also only allowed one walk).
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Austin Pierzynski, who scored three runs while going 3-for-3. Roy Rodriguez was another key contributor, scoring a run while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, South Lake fought the good fight in their extra-innings game against Cypress Creek on Tuesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Bears by a score of 3-2. That's two games in a row now that South Lake has lost by just one run.
South Lake saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was David Pina, who scored a run and stole two bases while going 1-for-2.
Even though they lost, South Lake didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with nine strikeouts. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Cypress Creek only tossed five.
The First Academy is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 11-5 record this season. As for South Lake, they now have a losing record at 7-8.
The First Academy came out on top in a nail-biter against South Lake in their previous meeting back in April of 2023, sneaking past 4-3. Will The First Academy repeat their success, or does South Lake have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
