Baseball Game Preview: Rifle Bears vs. Coal Ridge Titans

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Previous Games

04/18/24 - Home	3-8 L
04/20/23 - Away	1-2 L
04/19/22 - Home	5-2 W
05/31/21 - Away	16-2 W
04/05/19 - Home	12-6 W
+ 5 more games

Rifle has gone 8-2 against Coal Ridge recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Tuesday. The Bears will take on the Titans at 4:00 p.m.

Rifle fell victim to Palisade and their airtight pitching crew on Saturday. They came up short against the Bulldogs, falling 10-0.

Meanwhile, Coal Ridge had already won 12 in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 9.9 runs) and they went ahead and made it 13 on Friday. They blew past the Cowboys 15-5. The Titans might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 16 games by six runs or more this season.

John Luke Houston made a splash no matter where he played. He pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. Houston was also big at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two runs, one stolen base, and two RBI.

In other batting news, Logan Harlow and Ben Simons did most of the damage at the plate: Harlow went 3-for-4 with one home run, two runs, and two RBI, while Simons went 3-for-4 with three RBI, two runs, and one stolen base. That's the most hits Harlow has posted since back in May of 2024. Another player making a difference was Dylan Miller, who got on base in all four of his plate appearances with two RBI and one run.

Coal Ridge was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .560. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a batting average of .310 or higher in 13 consecutive matches.

Coal Ridge pushed their record up to 17-2-1 with the victory, which was their 11th straight at home. Those home wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 12.3 runs over those games. As for Rifle, they now have a losing record of 9-10.

Rifle couldn't quite get it done against Coal Ridge in their previous matchup back in April of 2024 as they fell 8-3. Can the Bears avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.