Baseball Game Preview: Land O' Lakes Gators vs. Central Bears

Land O' Lakes has gone a perfect 8-0 against Central recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Tuesday. The Land O' Lakes Gators will head out to take on the Central Bears at 4:00 p.m. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Land O' Lakes has struggled recently with three defeats in a row, while Central will arrive with six straight wins.

Last Friday, Land O' Lakes didn't have quite enough to beat Mitchell and fell 5-4.

A.J. Romano

Batters Struck Out

03/14/25 @ Mitchell	7
03/07/25 vs Sunlake	4
02/28/25 @ Bishop McLaughlin Catholic	2
05/02/24 vs Springstead	3
04/18/24 @ Springstead	3
+ 4 more games

A.J. Romano was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he struck out seven batters over 5.1 innings while giving up three earned (and one unearned) runs off five hits. That's the most strikeouts he has posted since back in March of 2024.

At the plate, Santi Busot made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and scored a run while going 2-for-4.

Meanwhile, Central had just enough and edged out Bishop McLaughlin Catholic 5-4 on Monday.

Korbin Baskind made a splash no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, striking out nine batters over seven innings while giving up three earned (and one unearned) runs off six hits (and only one walk). Baskind was also big at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two runs and one triple. That triple marked the first that he hit this season.

In other batting news, Jayden Warren was excellent, scoring two runs while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Talyn Poole, who went 2-for-4 with two RBI.

Central pushed their record up to 9-4 with the victory, which was their fourth straight at home. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to hits: they averaged an imposing nine hits in those games compared to only five in the others. As for Land O' Lakes, their loss dropped their record down to 5-7.

Land O' Lakes took their win against Central in their previous meeting back in April of 2024 by a conclusive 12-1. The rematch might be a little tougher for Land O' Lakes since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.