Baseball Preview: Zanesville Blue Devils vs. Licking Heights Hornets
Zanesville is 1-6 against Licking Heights since April of 2021 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Zanesville Blue Devils will head out on the road to square off against the Licking Heights Hornets at 5:00 p.m. Zanesville will be hoping to continue their three-game streak of scoring more runs each game than the last.
Zanesville is headed into the matchup fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. Everything went their way against Northridge on Wednesday as Zanesville made off with a 12-1 victory. The team's explosion at the plate also rewarded Zanesville with their most commanding win of the season.
Evan McBride tossed a big game, striking out six batters over six innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits.
At the plate, Solomon Norris was incredible, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 2-for-4. Riley Needles was another key contributor, scoring two runs and stealing three bases while getting on base in two of his four plate appearances.
Meanwhile, Licking Heights might've scored the first runs on Wednesday, but it was Johnstown-Monroe who claimed the real prize. Licking Heights' tough 14-4 loss to Johnstown-Monroe might stick with them for a while.
Brady Pennington was cooking despite his team's loss, scoring a run and stealing two bases while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. The team also got some help courtesy of Joel Busker, who scored a run while going 1-for-4.
Even though they lost, Licking Heights hit smart and finished the game with only one strikeout. That's the fewest strikeouts they've managed all season.
Zanesville's win ended a 15-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 4-10-1. As for Licking Heights, they have been struggling recently as they've lost ten of their last 11 matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 4-12 record this season.
Zanesville came up short against Licking Heights in their previous meeting on April 9th, falling 10-6. Can Zanesville avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
