Baseball Preview: Orange Park Raiders vs. Oakleaf Knights
Orange Park is 0-10 against Oakleaf since February of 2016 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Orange Park Raiders are on the road again to play the Oakleaf Knights at 7:00 p.m. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Englewood typically has all the answers at home, but on Friday Orange Park proved too difficult a challenge. They had just enough and edged the Rams out 6-4. Six seems to be a good number for Orange Park as the team scooped up a win with the same number of runs in their previous game.
Yaziel Del Valle made a splash no matter where he played. He didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out six over five innings pitched. Del Valle was also big at the plate, getting on base in all six of his plate appearances with two runs, a triple, and a double.
In other batting news, Josh Taylor was excellent, going 2-for-4 with a stolen base, a double, and an RBI. Devon Moore was another key contributor, going 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI.
Meanwhile, Oakleaf's hitters rose to the challenge against a Warriors pitching crew that boasted an average of only 3.89 points allowed on Monday. Oakleaf put the hurt on West Nassau with a sharp 10-2 victory.
Jackson Clark looked comfortable as he pitched 3.1 innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits (he also only allowed one walk). He has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up a single walk in three consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, Giancarlo Calderon was a standout: he went 2-for-4 with four RBI and a triple. Another player making a difference was JP Espinosa, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-4.
The win got Orange Park back to even at 9-9. As for Oakleaf, their record now sits at 11-8.
Orange Park suffered a grim 9-0 defeat to Oakleaf in their previous meeting back in April of 2023. Can Orange Park avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
