The Bennington Badgers will square off against the Gross Catholic Cougars at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.
Bennington is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Seward, sneaking past 4-2.
Houston Hill
| 05/20/25 vs Seward | 8 |
| 03/29/25 vs Concordia/Brownell/Omaha Christian Academy | 7 |
| 04/09/24 vs Norris | 7 |
| 04/11/25 @ Pius X | 6 |
| 04/03/25 vs Gretna | 6 |
Bennington got a great performance from Houston Hill as he struck out eight batters over 6.1 innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off four hits. Those eight strikeouts gave Hill a new career-high.
On the hitting side, Bennington saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Jace Fitzgerald, who went 2-for-3 with one RBI. That's the most hits Fitzgerald has posted since back in April.
Bennington hit smart and finished the game with only one strikeout. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Seward struck out eight times.
Meanwhile, Gross Catholic faced Bennington in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Monday. The Cougars had just enough and edged out the Badgers 7-6. The win was familiar territory for the Cougars, who have now won five games in a row.
Carson Kozeal made a splash while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run over 6.2 innings pitched. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in ten consecutive appearances. He was also big at the plate, getting on base in four of his seven plate appearances with three runs and one RBI.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Drew Powers, who went 4-for-6 with two runs, one stolen base, and one double. That double marked the first that he has hit this season.
Bennington is on a roll lately: they've won 12 of their last 13 contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 27-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.6 runs on average over those games. As for Gross Catholic, their record is now 18-7.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
