The Deltona Wolves will square off against the Horizon Hawks at 1:00 p.m. on Monday. Deltona will aim to continue their three-game streak of scoring more runs each game than the last.
Deltona will bounce into Monday's matchup after beating New Smyrna Beach, who they had gone 2-7 against in their nine prior meetings. Deltona blew past New Smyrna Beach 9-2 on Friday. Give some credit to the fans of both teams: the last four times they've met, the home team has come away the winner.
Deltona got a great performance from Evan Grove as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit over 4.2 innings pitched. The dominant performance gave Grove a new career-low in hits.
On the hitting side, Deltona let Yandiel Torres and Eric Cunningham run wild. Torres got on base in all three of his plate appearances with one triple, one run, and one RBI, while Cunningham went 2-for-3 with four RBI. The dominant performance gave Cunningham a new career-high in RBI. Another player making a difference was Kenny Dozier, who scored two runs while going 2-for-3.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Horizon). They put the hurt on Colonial with a sharp 14-2 victory on Wednesday. The Hawks haven't had any issues with the Grenadiers recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive win against them.
Brayden Crow looked comfortable as he tossed three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. That hit marked the first that he allowed this season.
At the plate, Jose Massanet was a standout: he scored three runs and stole a base while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. The team also got some help courtesy of Tristan Schein, who scored two runs while going 3-for-4.
Horizon always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .647. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
Deltona has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests. That's provided a massive bump to their 4-8 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.0 runs on average over those games. Horizon's record now sits at 9-4.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Monday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Deltona has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 6.9 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Horizon struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.1 strikeouts. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one. Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other baseball content.
