The Crystal River Pirates are taking a road trip to challenge the Vanguard Knights at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. Crystal River will be strutting in after a victory while Vanguard will be coming in after a loss.
Crystal River took a loss when they played away from home on Tuesday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Wednesday. They came out on top against Nature Coast Tech by a score of 11-6. The Pirates' hitters stepped up their game for this one, as that was the most runs they've scored all season.
McKown Kaden
| 02/28/25 @ Hernando | 3 |
| 02/18/25 @ Citrus | 1 |
McKown Kaden tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run over 5.2 innings pitched. He also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because Crystal River is 3-1 when he allows at most three earned runs, but 1-8 otherwise.
On the hitting side, Crystal River got a massive performance out of Grayson Stack, who scored a run and stole Two bases. while going 3-for-5. That's the most hits Stack has posted since back in April of 2024. Another player making a difference was Eli Langston, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-4.
Crystal River always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .553. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
Meanwhile, Vanguard came up short against Forest on Friday and fell 8-4. The Knights have struggled against the Wildcats recently, as the game was their third consecutive lost meetings.
Vanguard saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Spencer Payne, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-3. Payne also put up a triple, which was his first of the season.
Crystal River's win ended a four-game drought at home and bumped them up to 4-9. Their recent woes sure aren't a result of their performance when it comes to strikeouts: they averaged an imposing seven strikeouts in those games compared to only 3.78 in the others. As for Vanguard, their defeat dropped their record down to 7-3.
Crystal River might still be hurting after the 12-3 loss they got from Vanguard in their previous meeting back in February of 2023. Can Crystal River avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
