Baseball Preview: Keystone Heights Indians vs. Baker County Wildcats
The Keystone Heights Indians will head out on the road to take on the Baker County Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Keystone Heights' pitching crew has only allowed four runs per game this season, so Baker County's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
Friday just wasn't the day for Keystone Heights' offense. They wound up on the wrong side of a tough 7-0 walloping at the hands of Fernandina Beach on Friday. The match marked that first time this season in which Keystone Heights was not able to get on the board.
Keystone Heights saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Kolby Thomas, who went 1-for-2 with a stolen base.
Meanwhile, Baker County had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 4.5 runs), and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. They walked away with an 8-3 win over the Tornadoes. That's two games straight that Baker County has won by exactly five runs.
Wesley Crockett and Reese Taylor did most of the damage at the plate: Crockett scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-3, while Taylor went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI.
This is the second loss in a row for Keystone Heights and nudges their season record down to 13-6. As for Baker County, their victory bumped their record up to 12-8.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Monday as both teams have some strikeout artists on the roster. Keystone Heights has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.9 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Baker County struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Keystone Heights skirted past Baker County 2-0 when the teams last played back in March. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Baker County's Colson Altman, who struck out nine batters over 4.2 innings while giving up just two earned runs off five hits (and only one walk). Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Keystone Heights still be able to contain Altman? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
