Baseball Game Preview: Ridgewood Rebels vs. West Aurora Blackhawks

The Ridgewood Rebels will challenge the West Aurora Blackhawks at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Ridgewood is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 6.1 runs per game this season.

On Tuesday, Ridgewood didn't have quite enough to beat West Chicago and fell 5-4.

Ridgewood saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Anthony Bruno, who went 2-for-4 with two RBI, one run, and one double. Another was Kyle Szewczyk, who went 2-for-4 with one stolen base and one run.

West Aurora couldn't beat Oswego East on Wednesday even though they stacked four runs on them in the fourth inning. The Blackhawks fell just short of the Wolves by a score of 5-4. The defeat continues a trend for the Blackhawks in their meetings with the Wolves: they've now lost six in a row.

Jake Niedzwiedz spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered just two earned (and three unearned) runs on seven hits.

Ridgewood's loss dropped their record down to 12-10-1. As for West Aurora, their defeat dropped their record down to 18-5.

The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Thursday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Ridgewood has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 6.8 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like West Aurora struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.3 strikeouts. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one. Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other baseball content.