Baseball Game Preview: Sidwell Friends Quakers vs. Calhoun Academy Cavaliers

The Sidwell Friends Quakers will challenge the Calhoun Academy Cavaliers at 11:00 a.m. on Monday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Sidwell Friends 3.4, Calhoun Academy 2.4) so any runs scored will be well earned.

Sidwell Friends' usually-dominant pitching crew will be looking to make up for Wednesday's struggle, when Landon hitters got past them. Sidwell Friends lost 10-4 to Landon on Wednesday. The loss was the Quakers' first of the season.

Meanwhile, Calhoun Academy had already won six in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 7.3 runs) and they went ahead and made it seven on Friday. They put the hurt on the Generals with a sharp 17-2 win. The result was nothing new for the Cavaliers, who have now won five matchups by six runs or more so far this season.

Cullen Sightler and Chase Strickland made a big impact no matter where they played. On the mound, Sightler pitched 1.2 innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. Meanwhile, Strickland struck out eight batters over 3.1 innings while giving up just two earned runs off three hits (and not a single walk). Sightler has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two hits in four consecutive appearances. At bat, Sightler scored two runs while going 4-for-5, while Strickland scored four runs while going 3-for-3. Those four runs gave Strickland a new career-high.

In other batting news, Will Strock and Asher Ficek did most of the damage at the plate: Strock went a perfect 1-for-1 with one home run and three RBI, while Ficek scored a run while going 2-for-3. The dominant performance also gave Ficek a new career-high in doubles (two). Austin Summers also deserves some recognition as he snagged his first stolen base of the season.

Calhoun Academy kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 17 hits. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 5.5 hits per game earlier this season, but in their last 15 games they've averaged 11.8.

Calhoun Academy's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 9-2. The wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 12.0 runs over those games. As for Sidwell Friends, their loss dropped their record down to 6-1.