Baseball Game Preview: Taylorville Tornadoes vs. Mt. Zion Braves

Taylorville is 1-9 against Mt. Zion since April of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Saturday. The Tornadoes will face off against the Braves at 10:00 a.m. Taylorville's pitching crew has only allowed 1.4 runs per game this season, so Mt. Zion's hitters will have their work cut out for them.

Taylorville easily dispatched Argenta-Oreana last Tuesday, but unfortunately both the margin and the ultimate result were a different story in this one. The Tornadoes fell just short of Monticello by a score of 5-3 on Wednesday. The matchup marked the Tornadoes' lowest-scoring contest so far this season.

Meanwhile, Mt. Zion won against Shelbyville on Wednesday with six runs and they decided to stick to that run total again on Thursday. The Braves didn't even let St. Anthony on the board, marking the Braves' second-straight 6-0 shutout. Considering the Braves have won six games by more than five runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.

Mt. Zion pushed their record up to 8-1 with the victory, which was their fourth straight on the road. The road wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.0 runs over those games. As for Taylorville, their loss was their first of the season and makes their record 6-1.

Taylorville might still be hurting after the 10-0 defeat they got from Mt. Zion when the teams last played back in April of 2024. Can the Tornadoes avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.