Baseball Game Preview: IMG Academy Gold Ascenders vs. Out-of-Door Academy Thunder

The IMG Academy Gold Ascenders will face off against the Out-of-Door Academy Thunder at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Out-of-Door Academy took a loss in their last game and will be looking to turn the tables on IMG Academy Gold, who comes in off a win.

On Tuesday, IMG Academy Gold narrowly escaped with a victory as the team sidled past Southwest Florida Christian 10-8.

Romolo DeCenzo looked comfortable as he tossed 2.1 innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits.

Cade Hudmon

Runs Batted In (Career)

03/18/25 @ Southwest Florida Christian	3
03/07/25 @ Cypress Lake	2
03/05/25 vs Sunshine State Elite Academy	1
02/10/25 @ Cardinal Mooney	1

On the hitting side, Cade Hudmon was incredible, scoring a run while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in RBI (three). Another player making a difference was Ryan Williams, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-4.

IMG Academy Gold kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 13 hits. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Southwest Florida Christian only managed seven hits.

Meanwhile, Out-of-Door Academy has relied on a stalwart pitchers averaging 4.08 runs allowed per game, but that average took a hit on Tuesday. They lost 10-1 to Braden River. Having soared to a lofty ten runs in the game before, the Thunder couldn't push the score so high this time.

IMG Academy Gold is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last eight matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 7-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 6.3 runs over those games. Out-of-Door Academy's loss dropped their record down to 6-6.

IMG Academy Gold skirted past Out-of-Door Academy 3-1 when the teams last played back in April of 2024. Will IMG Academy Gold repeat their success, or does Out-of-Door Academy have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.