The Archbishop Spalding Cavaliers will challenge the Iona Prep Gaels at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Archbishop Spalding 3.5, Iona Prep 2.4) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Archbishop Spalding is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Maryland's top teams: Mount St. Joseph, who was ranked seventh at the time (Archbishop Spalding was ranked second). The Cavaliers fell just short of the Gaels by a score of 5-4 on Friday. Give some credit to the fans of both teams: the last four times they've met, the home team has come away the winner.
Meanwhile, Iona Prep had already won eight in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 9.3 runs) and they went ahead and made it nine on Thursday. They never let the Crusaders get on the board and left with an 11-0 victory. The Gaels might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 11 games by seven runs or more this season.
Iona Prep got a great performance from Andrew Catalic as he kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out eight over five innings pitched.
On the hitting side, Dylan Merola was a standout: he got on base in all three of his plate appearances with three stolen bases and two runs. The team also got some help courtesy of Kendrick Jorge, who went 1-for-2 with two stolen bases, two runs, and one triple.
Iona Prep always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .562. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Monsignor Scanlan only posted an OBP of .125.
Iona Prep pushed their record up to 16-3-1 with the win, which was their tenth straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 10.5 runs over those games. As for Archbishop Spalding, they have traveled a rocky road recently, having lost four of their last five contests. That's put a noticeable dent in their 21-9 record this season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
