Oakleaf is 0-3 against Sandalwood since March of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Oakleaf Knights will be playing at home against the Sandalwood Saints at 6:30 p.m. The two teams have allowed few runs on average, (Oakleaf: 3.6, Sandalwood: 2.8) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Oakleaf is headed into the contest fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They put the hurt on Interlachen with a sharp 13-1 win on Wednesday. The victory was familiar territory for Oakleaf who now have five in a row.
Jacob Mclintic looked comfortable as he tossed an inning while giving up no earned runs or hits.
At the plate, JP Espinosa was incredible, going 2-for-3 with a home run and two runs. Another player making a difference was Jeter Farina, who scored a run while going 1-for-1.
Meanwhile, after soaring to 15 runs the game before, Sandalwood was a bit more limited in their game last Tuesday. They fell just short of Englewood by a score of 4-2.
Sandalwood saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Dalton Tibbetts, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with an RBI.
Oakleaf has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven matches, which provided a massive bump to their 15-8 record this season. As for Sandalwood, their loss was their third straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 10-10.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Thursday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Oakleaf has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 6.7 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Sandalwood struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.2. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Oakleaf came up short against Sandalwood when the teams last played back in April of 2022, falling 5-0. Thankfully for Oakleaf, Cooper Whited (who didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out ten over seven innings pitched) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
