Baseball Preview: Illinois Valley Central Grey Ghosts vs. Washington Panthers
Illinois Valley Central is 0-3 against Washington since March of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Illinois Valley Central Grey Ghosts will head out on the road to square off against the Washington Panthers at 4:30 p.m. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with Illinois Valley Central sitting on five straight victories and Washington on three.
After only one run in their last matchup, Illinois Valley Central made sure to put some runs up on the board against Pontiac on Thursday. Illinois Valley Central put the hurt on Pontiac with a sharp 11-1 win. With that victory, Illinois Valley Central brought their scoring average up to 6.5 runs per game.
Mason Marchand made a splash no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run over four innings pitched. Marchand was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring four runs and stealing a base while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. He has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last three times he's played.
In other batting news, Cole Yates was excellent, scoring three runs while going 2-for-4. Derek Moore was another key contributor, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, while Washington put up some runs on Wednesday, the same can't be said for LaSalle-Peru. Washington had just enough and edged LaSalle-Peru out 1-0.
Washington also got a great performance from Braden Vanderheydt as he didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out eight over five innings pitched. Gavin Lawrence came in to relieve Vanderheydt and was airtight, giving up no runs, hits or walks in his three innings pitched.
On the hitting side, Washington's win was truly a team effort as two different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Micha McCoy, who went 1-for-3 with an RBI.
Illinois Valley Central pushed their record up to 6-2 with that victory, which was their third straight on the road. As for Washington, their record is now 3-1.
Illinois Valley Central came up short against Washington in their previous meeting back in April of 2022, falling 4-0. Thankfully for Illinois Valley Central, Gus Lucas (who didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out nine over six innings pitched) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
