Baseball Game Preview: Struthers Wildcats vs. Ursuline Fighting Irish

Struthers hasn't had much luck against Ursuline recently, but that could start to change on Thursday. The Wildcats will head out on the road to square off against the Fighting Irish at 5:00 p.m. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

On Wednesday, Struthers beat East Palestine 9-6.

Michael Scavnicky

Runs

04/23/25 @ East Palestine	2
04/03/25 vs Springfield	2
03/29/25 vs McDonald	2
04/18/25 vs Harding	1
04/01/25 @ Lakeview	1

Eddie Bradley and Michael Scavnicky did most of the damage at the plate: Bradley went 1-for-3 with two runs and one RBI, while Scavnicky went 2-for-4 with two runs, one double, and one RBI. Scavnicky has become a key player for Struthers: the team is 2-1 when he posts at least two runs, but 3-7 otherwise. Phil Robbins was another key player, going 1-for-3 with two stolen bases and one run.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Ursuline). Everything went their way against Crestview on Wednesday as they made off with a 16-7 win. The victory continues a trend for the Fighting Irish in their matchups with the Rebels: they've now won four in a row.

Ursuline got a massive performance out of Joe Balog, who went 2-for-3 with three runs, two doubles, and one stolen base. Those two doubles gave Balog a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of AJ Snyder, who went 3-for-5 with three RBI, two runs, and two doubles.

Ursuline kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 18 hits. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 5 hits per game earlier this season, but in their last 15 games they've averaged 10.6.

Struthers' win ended a three-game drought on the road and puts them at 5-8. As for Ursuline, their record now sits at 5-7.

Struthers suffered a grim 17-4 defeat to Ursuline in their previous matchup back in April of 2017. Can the Wildcats avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.