Southwestern hasn't had much luck against North Decatur recently, but that could start to change on Thursday. The Spartans will challenge the Chargers at 7:30 p.m. Both come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
For some reason, the away team has come away with the win the last four times Southwestern and Morristown have met, but the home crowd finally got their W on Friday. The Spartans walked away with a 9-5 victory over the Yellow Jackets. The win continues a trend for the Spartans in their matchups with the Yellow Jackets: they've now won three in a row.
Meanwhile, North Decatur made easy work of Jac-Cen-Del on Monday and carried off a 14-2 victory. The Chargers might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won nine games by seven runs or more this season.
Xander Jones and Matthew Fields were major factors while hitting and pitching. Throwing, Jones pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs off three hits. Meanwhile, Fields didn't allow a single earned run while striking out eight over five innings pitched. He has been consistent: he hasn't tossed less than eight strikeouts in five consecutive appearances. At bat, Jones went 2-for-4 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one run, while Fields went 2-for-3 with one run.
In other batting news, Kamdenn McKinney was incredible, going a perfect 3-for-3 with four stolen bases, two runs, and one RBI. He has become a key player for North Decatur: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 7-9 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Nolan Burkhart, who went 1-for-2 with two runs, one stolen base, and one double.
North Decatur always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .558. They are a perfect 9-0 when they post an OBP of .513 or better.
North Decatur is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven contests. That's provided a massive bump to their 14-9 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.3 runs on average over those games. As for Southwestern, the victory got them back to even at 8-8.
Southwestern suffered a grim 11-1 defeat to North Decatur in their previous meeting last Friday. Can the Spartans avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
