The Franklin Community Grizzly Cubs will venture away from home to challenge the Bloomington South Panthers at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Franklin Community's pitching crew has only allowed 2.9 runs per game this season, so Bloomington South's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
Franklin Community's pitching crew heads into the game hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Wednesday. They were the clear victors by a 10-0 margin over Martinsville. Considering the Grizzly Cubs have won six matches by more than nine runs this season, Wednesday's blowout was nothing new.
The team relied heavily on Carsten Bland, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with two runs, one stolen base, and two RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Landen Basey, who went 1-for-4 with two runs, two RBI, and one double.
Meanwhile, Bloomington South had already won eight in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 3.9 runs) and they went ahead and made it nine on Wednesday. They walked away with a 5-1 victory over the Cardinals. Five seems to be a good number for the Panthers as the team scooped up a win with the same number of runs in their previous game.
Bloomington South also got a great performance from Collin Marcum as he struck out 11 batters over 6.1 innings while giving up just one earned run off one hit. Those 11 strikeouts gave Marcum a new career-high.
At the plate, Drew Palileo and Jake McCammon did most of the damage at the plate: Palileo went 1-for-3 with one stolen base, one run, and one RBI, while McCammon went 3-for-4 with one double and one RBI. That stolen base marked the first that Palileo has snagged this season. Sam Giles was another key player, going 1-for-2 with two stolen bases and one run.
Franklin Community is on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 13-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.0 run on average over those games. As for Bloomington South, their win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 10-5.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Franklin Community has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 9.7 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Bloomington South struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.4 strikeouts. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Franklin Community beat Bloomington South 3-0 when the teams last played back in May of 2024. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Grizzly Cubs since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
