Baseball Recap: Kearney Bearcats vs. Grand Island Islanders        
        
		
            
 On Friday, Kearney faced Grand Island in a battle between two of the state's top teams. The Kearney Bearcats'  rough  7-0 defeat to the Grand Island Islanders  might stick with them for a while. The  matchup marked that first time this year in which Kearney was not able to get on the board.
 Kearney saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was  Karter Lee, who  went 2-for-3 with two  stolen bases.
 Even though they lost, Kearney  didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and  finished the game with 11  strikeouts. That's the most  strikeouts they've managed all season.
 On Grand Island's side,  Cohen Nelson tossed a big game,   not allowing a single  earned run while striking out 11 over five innings pitched. Nelson has been consistent recently: he hasn't  tossed less than six  strikeouts in three consecutive pitching appearances.  Cedric Sullivan picked up the save,   tossing two innings while giving up   no  earned runs off   one  hit (he also didn't allow any  walks).
 At the plate,  the team  relied heavily on  Broxton Barrientos, who  scored two  runs while  getting on base  in all four of his plate appearances.
 Kearney dropped their record down to 3-3 with that  loss, which was their third straight  at home. As for Grand Island, they are  on a roll lately: they've  won three of their last four matches,  which provided a nice bump to their 4-2 record  this season.
 Kearney will head out on the road to  face off against  Millard West at 11:00  a.m.  on Saturday. Millard West will roll in looking for their  fifth straight  win, something Kearney surely won't give up without a fight. As for Grand Island, they will be staying on the road  on Saturday to face off against Elkhorn South at 12:00  p.m. Grand Island's pitching crew has only allowed 3.8  runs per game  this season, so Elkhorn South's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
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