Baseball Game Preview: St. Paul's Episcopal Saints vs. Faith Academy Rams

For the second straight game, St. Paul's Episcopal will face off against Faith Academy. The Saints will be playing at home against the Rams at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (St. Paul's Episcopal 4.1, Faith Academy 2.7) so any runs scored will be well earned.

St. Paul's Episcopal is probably headed into the matchup with a chip on their shoulder considering Faith Academy just ended the team's three-game winning streak on Thursday. They fell 9-6 to the Rams.

For Faith Academy's part, they got a great performance from Riley Hall as he tossed six innings while giving up just one earned (and five unearned) runs off six hits. What's more, Hall posted four strikeouts, the most he's had over his last five contests.

On the hitting side, Bryce Turner and Cooper Smith did most of the damage at the plate: Turner scored a run while going 2-for-3, while Smith scored a run while going 2-for-3. Those two hits gave Turner a new career-high.

Faith Academy kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 11 hits. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 5.2 hits per game earlier this season, but in their last 15 games they've averaged 9.2.

The win was the 11th in a row for Faith Academy, bringing their record up to 18-3. Those victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.3 runs over those games. As for St. Paul's Episcopal, their loss was their first in the region, dropping their region record down to 3-1 and their overall record down to 11-8.