Baseball Game Preview: St. Clair Saints vs. Utica Chieftains

For the second straight game, St. Clair will face off against Utica. The Saints will head out on the road to face off against the Chieftains at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday.

St. Clair came up short against Utica on Tuesday, falling 9-3. The Saints haven't had much luck with the Chieftains recently, as the team has come up short the last five times they've met.

For Utica's part, Dominic Ligocki spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered three earned runs on nine hits. Ligocki has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than two walks in three consecutive appearances.

On the hitting side, Utica got a massive performance out of Emillio Oddo, who went 2-for-4 with two runs, two RBI, and one double. That's the most RBI Oddo has posted since back in March. Charlie Geottes was another key player, going 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs.

Utica always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .514. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.

The win (which was Utica's third in a row) raised their record to 11-9. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.3 runs on average over those games. As for St. Clair, their loss dropped their record down to 9-4.