Baseball Preview: Illiana Christian Vikings vs. Crown Point Bulldogs
The Illiana Christian Vikings will head out on the road to challenge the Crown Point Bulldogs at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Both teams come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
On Saturday, it was close, but Illiana Christian sidestepped Hobart for an 8-7 victory.
Isaac VanderWoude was incredible, getting on base in all five of his plate appearances with a home run, three runs, and two RBI. Tyler Balkema was another key contributor, getting on base in all five of his plate appearances with an RBI.
Meanwhile, Crown Point waltzed into their match on Saturday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They came out on top against the Raiders by a score of 8-4.
Crown Point also got a great performance from Logan Hadt as he didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits over 4.1 innings pitched. Hadt has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than two walks in three consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, Billy Chidsey was incredible, scoring three runs and stealing a base while going 3-for-4. Another player making a difference was Joe Sullivan, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI.
Illiana Christian has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 15-9 record this season. As for Crown Point, their win bumped their record up to 20-8.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Monday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Illiana Christian has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 6.8 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Crown Point struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.8. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Illiana Christian came up short against Crown Point in their previous meeting on May 4th, falling 6-2. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Crown Point's Christian Briseno, who struck out six batters over three innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. Now that Illiana Christian knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
