Baseball Game Preview: Knoxville Catholic Fighting Irish vs. West Rebels

The Knoxville Catholic Fighting Irish will take on the West Rebels at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Neither of those teams managed to put together many runs in their previous contests, so the offenses might be a little more motivated than usual.

Knoxville Catholic fell victim to Baylor and their airtight pitching crew on Tuesday. They fell just short of the Red Raiders by a score of 1-0. The Fighting Irish haven't had much luck with the Red Raiders recently, as the team has come up short the last seven times they've met.

Tyler Slatas

Earned Runs

03/19/25 vs Buchholz	4
03/07/25 vs Powell	4
04/07/25 vs Baylor	3
03/10/25 vs Chattanooga Christian	2
02/26/25 vs Roane County	1
+ 1 more games

Knoxville Catholic got a good showing from Tyler Slatas, who tossed 3.2 innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits. Slatas is becoming a predictor of the Fighting Irish's success: when he allows at most one earned run the team is 5-2-1 (and 9-10-1 when he doesn't).

Meanwhile, West came up short against Farragut on Wednesday and fell 6-1. The Rebels have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

West saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Jack Moffett, who went 1-for-3 with one double and one RBI.

Knoxville Catholic's defeat dropped their record down to 14-12-2. As for West, their loss dropped their record down to 16-12.

Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Friday. Knoxville Catholic hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.4 home runs per game. However, it's not like West struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.5 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.

Knoxville Catholic couldn't quite finish off West in their previous meeting back in April of 2024 and fell 3-1. Can the Fighting Irish avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.