Baseball Game Preview: East Duplin Panthers vs. East Bladen Eagles

The East Duplin Panthers will head out on the road to face off against the East Bladen Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. East Duplin is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 6.2 runs per game this season.

On Tuesday, East Duplin needed a bit of extra time to put away Southwest Onslow. They won by a run and slipped past the Stallions 5-4.

Kyle Kern

Batters Struck Out

04/29/25 vs Southwest Onslow	9
04/21/25 vs Rosewood	13
04/15/25 vs North Lenoir	9
04/10/25 vs Wallace-Rose Hill	12
04/04/25 vs South Lenoir	10
+ 2 more games

East Duplin got a great performance from Kyle Kern as he struck out nine batters over 5.1 innings while giving up just two earned runs off three hits. Kern has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than nine strikeouts in seven consecutive appearances.

On the hitting side, East Duplin saw seven different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Gavin Holmes, who got on base in three of his five plate appearances with one run and one RBI. Another was JP Murphy, who went 2-for-3 with one run and one double.

Meanwhile, East Bladen didn't have quite enough to beat Clinton on Monday and fell 8-7. The Eagles haven't had much luck with the Dark Horses recently, as the team has come up short the last three times they've met.

East Bladen's loss dropped their record down to 10-10. As for East Duplin, they are on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 13-7 record this season.

East Duplin couldn't quite get it done against East Bladen when the teams last played back in May of 2024 as they fell 5-2. Can the Panthers avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.