Van Buren has won three straight games at home, while Hilltop has won three straight on the road, but those streaks won't matter much on Saturday. The Black Knights will welcome the Cadets at 11:00 a.m.
Wednesday just wasn't the day for Van Buren's offense. They came up short against Liberty-Benton on Wednesday, falling 10-0.
Meanwhile, Hilltop put their dominant pitcher on display in the team's third consecutive shutout on Friday. They never let Antwerp get on the board and left with a 6-0 win. The Cadets might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 15 matchups by six runs or more this season.
Not much got past Giada Rising, who gave up just four hits to keep Antwerp off the board.
On the hitting side, Kelsy Connolly and Brooklyn Kuszmaul did most of the damage at the plate: Connolly went 1-for-4 with one home run and two RBI, while Kuszmaul went 2-for-3 with one home run. That's the most hits Kuszmaul has posted since back in April. Sophie Graham was another key player, going 2-for-3 with one stolen base and one RBI.
Hilltop is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight games. That's provided a nice bump to their 17-3 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 14.6 runs over those games. As for Van Buren, their defeat was their first in the conference, dropping their conference record down to 3-1 and their overall record down to 6-6.
Van Buren beat Hilltop 7-3 when the teams last played back in April of 2022. Will the Black Knights repeat their success, or do the Cadets have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
