Baseball Game Preview: Sun Valley Spartans vs. Cuthbertson Cavaliers

Sun Valley is 2-8 against Cuthbertson since April of 2023 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Spartans will face off against the Cavaliers. The two teams are strolling into their games after big wins in their previous games.

Sun Valley is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. Everything went their way against Alexander Central as they made off with an 8-1 victory. The win was familiar territory for the Spartans, who have now won six matchups in a row.

Connor Salerno

Earned Runs

03/19/25 @ Cuthbertson	6
04/09/25 vs Marvin Ridge	4
05/06/25 vs Alexander Central	1
04/02/25 @ Weddington	1

Connor Salerno spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on two hits and racked up ten Ks. Sun Valley is 8-1 when Salerno allows one or fewer earned runs, but 8-10 otherwise.

On the hitting side, Sun Valley got a big performance out of Jessen Copeland, who went 2-for-3 with three runs and one double. That's the most runs Copeland has posted since back in March. Ayden Matzke was another key player, going 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI.

Sun Valley was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .429. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Alexander Central only posted a batting average of .083.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Cuthbertson, who bounced back after a loss on the road last Tuesday. They never let Glenn get on the board and left with an 11-0 victory on Tuesday. The result was nothing new for the Cavaliers, who have now won 12 contests by eight runs or more so far this season.

Cuthbertson has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games. That's provided a nice bump to their 22-4 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for Sun Valley, their victory bumped their record up to 16-11.

Sun Valley beat Cuthbertson 5-2 in their previous matchup last Tuesday. Will the Spartans repeat their success, or do the Cavaliers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.