Baseball Game Preview: Cottondale Hornets vs. Malone Tigers

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Previous Games

04/11/23 - Away	11-4 W
03/15/23 - Home	7-3 W
05/03/22 - Away	5-0 W
04/07/22 - Away	4-0 W
03/08/22 - Home	11-0 W
+ 5 more games

Cottondale has gone 8-2 against Malone recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Tuesday. The Hornets will square off against the Tigers at 4:00 p.m. Cottondale is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 7.5 runs per game this season.

Cottondale gave up the first runs last Thursday, but they didn't let that get them down. They walked away with a 9-5 win over Pensacola Catholic. The victory was nothing new for the Hornets as they're now sitting on three straight.

Wyatt Speers made a big impact no matter where he played. On the mound, he didn't allow a single earned run over 5.1 innings pitched. Speers was also big at the plate, going 1-for-4 with one triple, two RBI, and one run. That's the most RBI he has posted since back in February.

Speers wasn't the only one making solid contact as eight players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Trace Pelfrey, who scored two runs while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. That's the most runs Pelfrey has posted since back in March. Carson Maloy was another, scoring a run while going 1-for-4.

Meanwhile, it can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Malone had no problem doing just that on Monday. They put the hurt on Graceville with a sharp 24-9 win. Malone might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won seven games by ten runs or more this season.

Malone is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests. That's provided a massive bump to their 10-11 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 13.4 runs over those games. As for Cottondale, they pushed their record up to 13-11 with the win, which was their fifth straight on the road.

Everything went Cottondale's way against Malone in their previous matchup back in April of 2023, as Cottondale made off with an 11-4 victory. Do the Hornets have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Tigers turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.