Baseball Game Preview: Alexander Central Cougars vs. Hibriten Panthers

Alexander Central has gone a perfect 8-0 against Hibriten recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. A feisty cat fight will be fought as Alexander Central Cougars challenge Hibriten Panthers at 6:30 p.m. Neither of those teams managed to put together many runs in their previous contests, so the offenses might be a little more motivated than usual.

Alexander Central fought the good fight in their extra-innings game against Mooresville on Wednesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Blue Devils by a score of 2-1. The match marked the Cougars' lowest-scoring contest so far this season.

Newt Rexrode was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he tossed five innings while giving up just one earned run off six hits.

Kade Church

Hits (Career)

03/26/25 @ Mooresville	3
03/21/25 vs Watauga	2
03/14/25 @ North Davidson	2
04/30/24 vs South Caldwell	2
04/23/24 @ Hibriten	2

At the plate, Alexander Central saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Kade Church, who went 3-for-4 with one double. Those three hits gave Church a new career-high.

Meanwhile, Hibriten suffered their closest loss since April 29, 2024 on Tuesday. They fell just short of Watauga by a score of 3-1. The Panthers haven't had much luck with the Pioneers recently, as the team has come up short the last six times they've met.

This is the second loss in a row for Alexander Central and nudges their season record down to 6-6. As for Hibriten, their defeat was their first in the conference, dropping their conference record down to 2-1 and their overall record down to 8-3.

Alexander Central came out on top in a nail-biter against Hibriten in their previous meeting back in April of 2024, sneaking past 3-1. The rematch might be a little tougher for Alexander Central since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.