The Sayre Spartans will challenge the St. Xavier Tigers at 5:30 p.m. on Monday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Sayre 4, St. Xavier 2.9) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Sayre is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Kentucky's top teams: Lafayette, who was ranked 23rd at the time (Sayre was ranked fifth). The Spartans walked away with a 6-3 win over the Generals on Saturday. Winning may never get old, but the Spartans sure are getting used to it with their fourth in a row.
Will Johnson tossed a big game, tossing five innings while giving up just two earned runs off five hits.
On the hitting side, Charlie Slabaugh was incredible, going a perfect 3-for-3 with two runs, one stolen base, and one double. That's the most hits he has posted since back in April. Another player making a difference was Reed Beatty, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with one run and one RBI.
Meanwhile, St. Xavier earned a 5-1 victory over Warren East on Saturday. The win continues a trend for the Tigers in their matchups with the Raiders: they've now won four in a row.
St. Xavier also got a great performance from Cooper Mattingly as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits over five innings pitched. Mattingly has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two walks in five consecutive appearances.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Oakley Clevenger, who went 2-for-3 with one triple and one run. That triple was his first of the season. The team also got some help courtesy of Cameron Marks, who went 2-for-3 with two runs and one double.
Sayre pushed their record up to 26-6 with the victory, which was their seventh straight on the road. Those road wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.6 runs on average over those games. As for St. Xavier, their victory bumped their record up to 25-5.
