Baseball Game Preview: St. Xavier Tigers vs. Pleasure Ridge Park Panthers

The St. Xavier Tigers will face off against the Pleasure Ridge Park Panthers at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as St. Xavier comes in on seven and Pleasure Ridge Park on five.

St. Xavier is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Kentucky's top teams: Trinity, who was ranked fourth at the time (St. Xavier was ranked fifth). The Tigers walked away with a 6-2 victory over the Shamrocks on Wednesday. The game was the first time the Tigers have beaten the Shamrocks on their field since May 23, 2023.

Jakob Reed spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered just two earned runs on five hits.

On the hitting side, Kyle Krupp was excellent, going 2-for-3 with two runs, one stolen base, and two RBI. That's the most RBI he has posted since back in March. Another player making a difference was Jaxon Coomer, who went 1-for-3 with two runs and one stolen base.

Meanwhile, it was a proper cat-fight when Pleasure Ridge Park duked it out with Fern Creek on Wednesday. The Panthers put the hurt on the Tigers with a sharp 18-4 win. The Panthers might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 11 matches by seven runs or more this season.

St. Xavier's victory was their eighth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 17-4. Those road wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 7.6 runs over those games. As for Pleasure Ridge Park, their victory bumped their record up to 17-3.

St. Xavier took their win against Pleasure Ridge Park in their previous matchup back in April of 2022 by a conclusive 11-1 score. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Tigers since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.