Baseball Game Preview: McKinley Tech Trainers vs. Eastern Ramblers

McKinley Tech is 2-7 against Eastern since May of 2017 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Wednesday. The Trainers will look to defend their home field against the Ramblers at 4:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

McKinley Tech's pitching crew heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Monday. They blew past Coolidge 14-0. The win was familiar territory for the Trainers, who have now won five games in a row.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Eastern, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Saturday. Everything went their way against Ballou on Monday as they made off with an 18-0 victory. The Ramblers haven't had any issues with the Knights recently, as the game was their fifth consecutive win against them.

Wesley Hanks was a major factor no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, tossing two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in strikeouts (five). He was also big at the plate, going 1-for-2 with two stolen bases, three runs, and two RBI. He is becoming a predictor of Eastern's success: when he posts at least two runs the team is undefeated (and 1-6 when he doesn't).

In other batting news, Lucas Campbell was a standout: he went a perfect 1-for-1 with two stolen bases, two runs, and one triple. Eastern is undefeated when Campbell posts two or more runs, but 2-6 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Joseph Foskett, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with two stolen bases, two runs, and two RBI.

Eastern always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .789. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.

Eastern now has a winning record of 7-6. As for McKinley Tech, their victory bumped their record up to 5-1.