Baseball Game Preview: Metro-East Lutheran Knights vs. Father McGivney Catholic Griffins

Metro-East Lutheran hasn't had much luck against Father McGivney Catholic recently, but that could start to change on Thursday. The Knights will look to defend their home field against the Griffins at 4:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, Metro-East Lutheran didn't have quite enough to beat Father McGivney Catholic and fell 5-4. That's two games in a row now that the Knights have lost by just one run.

For Father McGivney Catholic's part, they got several good pitching performances, but Ty Etcheson was perhaps the best, pitching two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. The dominant performance also gave Etcheson a new career-high in strikeouts (three).

On the hitting side, Justin Terhaar and Mason Holmes did most of the damage at the plate: Terhaar went 1-for-2 with two stolen bases, one run, and one RBI, while Holmes went 1-for-2 with one triple, one stolen base, and one run. Drew Kleinheider was another key player, going 1-for-2 with one stolen base, one run, and one double.

The victory (which was Father McGivney Catholic's 16th in a row) raised their record to 18-2. Those wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 10.8 runs over those games. As for Metro-East Lutheran, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 9-6.