The Grace Christian Crusaders will stay at home for another game and welcome the Hickory Grove Christian Lions at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.
Grace Christian will head into Monday's contest hoping to keep the good times rolling: they proved they can win big on Saturday (they won by nine) but on Monday they proved they can win the close ones too. They skirted past Gaston Christian 6-4.
The team relied heavily on Boaz Harper, who went 2-for-4 with a home run, four RBI, and two runs. The team also got some help courtesy of Matt Murchison, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-3.
Meanwhile, it can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Hickory Grove Christian had no problem doing just that on Monday. They won by a run and slipped past the Lions 4-3. That's two games straight that Hickory Grove Christian has won by just one run.
The team relied heavily on Ben Green, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.
Grace Christian's victory was their sixth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 18-7. As for Hickory Grove Christian, they have been performing well recently as they've won eight of their last ten matches, which provided a nice bump to their 18-8 record this season.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Grace Christian has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 10.4 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Hickory Grove Christian struggles in that department as they've been averaging 10.5. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Grace Christian beat Hickory Grove Christian 5-1 in their previous meeting back in March. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Hickory Grove Christian's Conner Barozzino, who struck out 11 batters over five innings while giving up three earned (and one unearned) runs off four hits. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Grace Christian still be able to contain Barozzino? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
