Baseball Game Preview: Hardin County Tigers vs. Wayne County Wildcats

The Hardin County Tigers will challenge the Wayne County Wildcats at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Hardin County's pitching crew has only allowed 3.2 runs per game this season, so Wayne County's hitters will have their work cut out for them.

Wayne County is facing Hardin County at the wrong time: Hardin County suffered their first home loss of the season on Tuesday and they're likely out for redemption. They fell just short of the Bobcats by a score of 5-4. That's two games in a row now that the Tigers have lost by just one run.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Wayne County). They never let Hughes get on the board and left with a 20-0 win on Tuesday. The victory was nothing new for the Wildcats as they're now sitting on four straight.

Graeme Polk made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out seven over four innings pitched. Those seven strikeouts gave him a new career-high. He was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring three runs and stealing two bases while going 2-for-3. Those stolen bases marked the first that he snagged this season.

In other batting news, Wayne County got a massive performance out of Brady Stooksberry, who went 2-for-3 with three RBI, two runs, and one triple. Stooksberry has become a key player for the Wildcats: the team is undefeated when he posts at least three RBI, but 3-6 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Logan Davis, who scored three runs and stole a base while going 2-for-2.

Wayne County always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .588. They are 5-1 when they post an OBP of .513 or better.

This is the second loss in a row for Hardin County and nudges their season record down to 16-4. Even worse, they were so close both times: the defeats came by an average of only one runs. As for Wayne County, the win got them back to even at 6-6.