Baseball Preview: Peoria Notre Dame Irish vs. Deer Creek-Mackinaw Chiefs
The Peoria Notre Dame Irish will square off against the Deer Creek-Mackinaw Chiefs at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.
On Thursday, Peoria Notre Dame didn't have quite enough to beat Bloomington and fell 5-4. That's two games in a row now that the Irish have lost by just one run.
Peoria Notre Dame got a good showing from Anthony LeFante, who tossed 3.2 innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off three hits. LeFante has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in four consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, Mason Kenny made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Deer Creek-Mackinaw). Everything went their way against Fisher on Friday as they made off with a 17-2 win. The Chiefs have beaten the Bunnies the last eight times they've met, but they better watch out: this was the closest the Bunnies has come to flipping the script.
Jerry Hahn looked comfortable as he tossed three innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits. He has become a key player for Deer Creek-Mackinaw: the team is 3-1 when he allows at most three earned runs, but 7-8 otherwise.
At the plate, Deer Creek-Mackinaw got a massive performance out of Chuck Hathaway, who went 2-for-3 with one home run, three runs, and two RBI. Hathaway is becoming a predictor of the Chiefs' success: when he posts at least two runs the team is 5-1 (and 5-8 when he doesn't). The team also got some help courtesy of Brody Williams, who went 2-for-3 with four RBI, two runs, and one stolen base.
Deer Creek-Mackinaw was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .667. They are 3-1 when they post a batting average of .375 or better.
Deer Creek-Mackinaw now has a winning record of 10-9. As for Peoria Notre Dame, they now have a losing record of 8-9.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
