Baseball Game Preview: Holmes County Blue Devils vs. Houston Mustangs

The Holmes County Blue Devils will square off against the Houston Mustangs at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Holmes County sitting on eight straight victories and Houston on three.

Holmes County's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Tuesday. They were the clear victor by a 10-0 margin over Port St. Joe. Considering the Blue Devils have won six games by more than six runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.

Rayce Griffin

Batters Struck Out (Career)

03/11/25 vs Port St. Joe	9
02/27/25 vs Chipley	5
02/27/24 vs Arnold	5
04/15/24 vs Marianna	3
02/11/25 vs Choctawhatchee	2

Rayce Griffin made a splash while hitting and pitching. He struck out nine batters over 3.2 innings while giving up no earned runs or hits (and only one walk). Those nine strikeouts gave him a new career-high. He was also big at the plate, going 2-for-3 with one RBI.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Bryant Mathis, who scored a run while going 2-for-3. Another player making a difference was Colby Powell, who scored two runs while going 3-for-4.

Holmes County always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .568. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.

Meanwhile, Houston's hitters rose to the challenge against a Spartans pitching crew that boasted an average of only 3.08 runs allowed on Thursday. Everything went Houston's way against St. Johns Country Day as Houston made off with a 13-5 win. The Mustangs might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won three contests by eight runs or more this season.

Holmes County pushed their record up to 9-1 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.2 runs on average over those games. As for Houston, their record now sits at 4-2.