Baseball Game Preview: Mineral Ridge Rams vs. McDonald Blue Devils

For the second straight game, Mineral Ridge will face off against McDonald. The Rams will be playing at home against the Blue Devils at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Mineral Ridge's pitching crew has only allowed 3.8 runs per game this season, so McDonald's hitters will have their work cut out for them.

Mineral Ridge's pitching crew heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Monday. They came out on top against McDonald by a score of 4-0. That's two games straight that the Rams have won by exactly four runs.

Xavier Klamer

Batters Struck Out

05/12/25 @ McDonald	7
05/06/25 vs Jackson-Milton	5
04/30/25 @ Waterloo	13
04/21/25 @ Springfield	11
04/17/25 @ Western Reserve	9
+ 2 more games

Not much got past Xavier Klamer, who gave up just a hit and racked up seven Ks to keep McDonald off the board. Klamer has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in seven consecutive appearances.

At the plate, Dom Balestrino was excellent, going 2-for-3 with one run, one double, and one RBI. Those two hits gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Gavin Harding, who went 1-for-4 with one stolen base, one run, and one double.

Mineral Ridge's win was their eighth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 14-3. Those road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.8 runs on average over those games. As for McDonald, they moved to 11-7 with that defeat, which also ended their seven-game winning streak.