Neenah is 1-9 against Hortonville since May of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Neenah Rockets will head out on the road to square off against the Hortonville Polar Bears at 5:00 p.m. Neenah is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 7.3 runs per game this season.
Things were looking good for Neenah after they put the first points on the board on Wednesday, but unfortunately for them things went downhill from there. They lost 9-2 to Oshkosh North. Neenah has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Neenah saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Ethan Van Dyke, who scored a run while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, Hortonville was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their third straight loss. They fell just short of Kaukauna by a score of 6-5.
Griffin Jens was huge while hitting and pitching even without the win. He looked comfortable on the mound, striking out nine batters over five innings while giving up just one earned (and two unearned) runs off four hits. Jens was also solid in the batter's box, scoring a run while getting on base in three of his seven plate appearances.
In other batting news, Kameron Chronis made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and scored a run and stole a base while going 4-for-7.
Even though they lost, Hortonville didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with 12 strikeouts. That's the most strikeouts they've managed all season.
Neenah's defeat ended a six-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 10-6. As for Hortonville, their record is now 6-8.
Hortonville's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Neenah hasn't had any issues making contact this season, having earned a batting average of .317. It's a different story for Hortonville, though, as they've only averaged .232. Will they be able to contain Neenah's hitters?
Neenah came up short against Hortonville when the teams last played back in April, falling 4-1. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Jens, who struck out seven batters over five innings while giving up just one earned run off one hit. Now that Neenah knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
