Baseball Recap: Highland Extends Winning Streak to Three

Highland extended their winning streak to three on Wednesday, bumping their season record up to 7-10 in the process. They put the hurt on the East Chicago Central Cardinals with a sharp 14-0 win. The Trojans have seen this before: they got the W the last time they saw the Cardinals, too.

Joe Stephan

Batters Struck Out (Career)

05/07/25 @ East Chicago Central	4
04/21/25 @ Hanover Central	3
04/12/25 @ Merrillville	3
04/10/25 vs Lowell	3
04/04/25 @ Plainfield	2

Joe Stephan looked comfortable as he pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off three hits. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in strikeouts (four).

At the plate, Highland let Nate Phillips and Logan Finch run wild. Phillips got on base in all four of his plate appearances with three RBI, one stolen base, and one run, while Finch went 3-for-4 with three runs, two doubles, and one stolen base. Those two doubles gave Finch a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Danijel Zekavica, who went a perfect 3-for-3 with two runs, one stolen base, and two RBI.

Highland was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .375. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their batting average total in three consecutive games.

As for East Chicago Central, their defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 6-7. Having soared to a lofty 15 runs in the game before, their shutout was a dramatic turnaround.

On East Chicago Central's side, they saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Abran Gomez, who went 1-for-2 with one stolen base. Gomez is on a roll when it comes to stolen bases, as he's now snagged at least one in each of the last four games he's played.

Both squads are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. Highland will square off against Griffith at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. The Trojans' pitchers better be ready for this one: the Panthers have averaged an impressive 6.6 runs per game this season. As for East Chicago Central, they will take on Lake Station Edison at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. The Fighting Eagles have struggled to contain batters this season (they've allowed 9.77 runs per game on average), something the Cardinals will no doubt try to take advantage of.