The Harlan County Black Bears will head out on the road to challenge the Whitley County Colonels at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Harlan County has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the game with seven straight losses, while Whitley County will come in with three straight wins.
Harlan hit Harlan County with a five-run third inning on Tuesday, which goes a long way in explaining the final result. The Black Bears fell 8-3 to the Green Dragons. Black Bears fans who chose to attend the game sure picked the wrong one: it was the first time the team's lost against the Green Dragons since on Tuesday.
Harlan County saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Jesse Gilbert, who went 1-for-2 with two runs.
Meanwhile, Whitley County's rock-solid pitcher showed up for the team's third consecutive shutout on Wednesday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Williamsburg a 16-0 shutout. The Colonels might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 11 matches by six runs or more this season.
Clint Partin looked comfortable as he struck out six batters over three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit (and not a single walk). He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in six consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, Whitley County let Henry Bowling and RJ Osborne run wild. Bowling went a perfect 1-for-1 with two stolen bases, two runs, and one RBI, while Osborne went a perfect 2-for-2 with two runs, one stolen base, and one double. Those two stolen bases gave Bowling a new career-high. Caleb Cureton also deserves some recognition as he got his first hit of the season.
Whitley County always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .733. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
Whitley County's victory was their seventh straight at home, which pushed their record up to 22-4. The home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.7 runs on average over those games. As for Harlan County, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-13-1.
Harlan County suffered a grim 16-1 defeat to Whitley County when the teams last played back in March of 2024. Can the Black Bears avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
