The Northside Christian Mustangs will head out on the road to face off against the IMG Academy Ascenders at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Northside Christian had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 7.3 runs), and they went ahead and made it four on Wednesday. They blew past the Barons 12-1. With that victory, Northside Christian brought their scoring average up to 6.3 runs per game.
Nick Bertrand tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run over five innings pitched.
On the hitting side, Northside Christian got a big performance out of Merric Hunt, who scored three runs and stole two bases while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. The team also got some help courtesy of Dominic Fernandez, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.
Meanwhile, IMG Academy faced Jesuit in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Tuesday. IMG Academy's pitchers stepped up to hand Jesuit a 10-0 shutout. IMG Academy's win was all the more impressive since Jesuit was averaging only 3.24 runs allowed on the season.
Noah Franco looked comfortable as he kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits over four innings pitched.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Josh Hanson, who went 2-for-2 with a triple, a stolen base, and two RBI. Josh Campbell was another key contributor, scoring two runs while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances.
Northside Christian has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine matches, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season. As for IMG Academy, the victory (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 17-2.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both teams have some strikeout artists on the roster. Northside Christian has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 9.3 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like IMG Academy struggles in that department as they've been averaging 9.4. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one. Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other baseball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
