The Winter Park Wildcats will face off against the St. Johns Country Day Spartans at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average, (Winter Park 3.1, St. Johns Country Day 3.1) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Winter Park is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another highly-ranked state team: Lewisburg, who was ranked first in their home state at the time (Winter Park was ranked 13th). Winter Park skirted past Lewisburg 6-5.
Palmer Edwards tossed a big game, striking out seven batters over 6.1 innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off four hits. Those hits marked the first that he allowed this season.
At the plate, Winter Park's victory was truly a team effort as six different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Jacob Butts, who scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-4. That's the most hits Butts has posted since back in February. Dylan Malave was another, getting on base in three of his four plate appearances with two RBI.
Meanwhile, St. Johns Country Day didn't have quite enough to beat Bishop Verot on Friday and fell 4-3. The Spartans have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Brayden Harris put in work while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he struck out ten batters over 5.2 innings while giving up three earned runs off five hits. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't tossed less than ten strikeouts in four consecutive appearances. He was also big at the plate, going a perfect 2-for-2 with one RBI.
Winter Park has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 11-3 record this season. They've had to fight for that success though, as they only beat their opponents by an average of 2.33 runs across that stretch. St. Johns Country Day's loss dropped their record down to 10-4.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Saturday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Winter Park has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 8.6 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like St. Johns Country Day struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.9 strikeouts. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one. Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other baseball content.
