The East Peoria Raiders will be playing in front of their home fans against the Peoria Christian Chargers at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The pair have allowed few runs on average, (East Peoria: 3.2, Peoria Christian: 3.2) so any runs scored will be well earned.
East Peoria is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Illinois' top teams: Dunlap, who was ranked ninth in their home state at the time (East Peoria was ranked 20th). East Peoria fell just short of Dunlap by a score of 4-3 on Wednesday. East Peoria has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
East Peoria saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Dave Hartwell, who scored a run while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, Peoria Christian had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 7.8 runs), and they went ahead and made it five on Wednesday. They walked away with a 4-1 win over the Patriots.
Gavin Walder was a major factor no matter where he played. He didn't allow a single earned run while striking out 13 over seven innings pitched. Walder has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in four consecutive pitching appearances. Walder was also big at the plate, going 2-for-3 with two runs and a triple.
East Peoria's defeat ended a five-game streak of away wins and brought them to 15-3. As for Peoria Christian, their victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 6-4.
Peoria Christian's pitching crew has a tough task ahead of them: East Peoria hasn't had any issues making contact this season, having earned a batting average of .326. It's a different story for Peoria Christian, though, as they've only averaged .255. Will they be able to contain East Peoria's hitters?
East Peoria beat Peoria Christian 3-0 when the teams last played back in April of 2023. Will East Peoria repeat their success, or does Peoria Christian have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
