Baseball Game Preview: Tuscaloosa County Wildcats vs. Prattville Lions

The Tuscaloosa County Wildcats will venture away from home to square off against the Prattville Lions at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Prattville took a loss in their last game and will be looking to turn the tables on Tuscaloosa County, who comes in off a win.

Tuscaloosa County is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Alabama's top teams: Hillcrest, who was ranked fifth at the time (Tuscaloosa County was ranked 13th). The Wildcats skirted past the Patriots 4-3. Surprisingly, this marked the sixth straight game that the away team has come away the victor.

The team relied heavily on Kole Nichloson, who scored a run and stole a base while going 3-for-4. The team also got some help courtesy of Drew Keller, who scored a run and stole a base while getting on base in two of his four plate appearances.

Meanwhile, Prattville was not able to break out of their rough patch on Thursday as the team picked up their third straight defeat. They were a single run away from ending the streak, but they lost a 7-6 heartbreaker at the hands of Thompson. That's two games in a row now that the Lions have lost by just one run.

Chris Hardaway was huge no matter where he played even without the win. He tossed 2.2 innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-low in earned runs (zero). He was also big at the plate, scoring two runs while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. He is becoming a predictor of Prattville's success: when he posts at least two runs the team is 2-1 (and 8-15 when he doesn't).

In other batting news, Sergio Barros made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and got on base in two of his four plate appearances with two stolen bases and one RBI. Hayden Lantz also deserves some recognition as he got his first hit of the season.

Tuscaloosa County has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 20-10 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 7.5 runs over those games. As for Prattville, their loss dropped their record down to 10-16.

Tuscaloosa County beat Prattville 7-4 when the teams last played back in March of 2015. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Wildcats since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.