Baseball Game Preview: Augustine Prep Lions vs. St. Francis Mariners

The Augustine Prep Lions will challenge the St. Francis Mariners at 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday. The timing isn't great for Augustine Prep: they have been struggling with three straight losses at home, while St. Francis has snatched up three consecutive wins on the road.

On Monday, Augustine Prep was able to grind out a solid win over St. John's Northwestern Military Academy, taking the game 4-1.

Meanwhile, while St. Francis put up some runs on Saturday, the same can't be said for Catholic Central. The Mariners walked away with a 4-0 victory over the Hilltoppers.

Tyler Budzien made a big impact no matter where he played. He didn't allow a single earned run while striking out 12 over five innings pitched. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't tossed less than six strikeouts in three consecutive appearances. He was also solid in the batter's box, going 1-for-3 with three stolen bases and two runs. He has become a key player for St. Francis: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 5-6 otherwise.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Kingston Liddell, who went 1-for-2 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one run. He is on a roll when it comes to stolen bases, as he's now snagged at least one in each of the last three games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Zach Perry, who went 1-for-2 with one stolen base and one run.

St. Francis has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight games. That's provided a massive bump to their 9-6 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.4 runs on average over those games. Augustine Prep's first victory this season bumped their record up to 1-6-1.