Baseball Game Preview: Hoover Huskies vs. Charleston Catholic Irish

Hoover has won three straight games at home, while Charleston Catholic has won three straight on the road, but those streaks won't matter much on Thursday. The Huskies will host the Irish at 7:00 p.m. Both come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Hoover's pitching crew heads into the contest hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Tuesday. They blew past Wayne 7-0. The result was nothing new for the Huskies, who have now won six matches by six runs or more so far this season.

Not much got past Riley Johnson, who gave up just a hit to keep Wayne off the board. Johnson has been consistent: he hasn't given up more than one walk in five consecutive appearances.

Tristan Harless

Stolen Base (Career)

04/29/25 vs Wayne	3
04/12/25 vs Chapmanville Regional	2
05/20/24 vs Philip Barbour	2
04/16/24 @ Poca	2
03/27/24 @ Charleston Catholic	2

At the plate, Hoover's victory was truly a team effort as three different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Tristan Harless, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with three stolen bases, one run, and one double. Those three stolen bases gave Harless a new career-high. Braydon Bounds was another, getting on base in two of his three plate appearances with one stolen base and one run.

Meanwhile, Charleston Catholic had just enough and edged out Riverside 11-10 on Wednesday. That's two games straight that the Irish have won by just one run.

Charleston Catholic has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 11 of their last 12 games. That's provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.9 runs on average over those games. As for Hoover, their victory bumped their record up to 12-8.

Hoover came out on top in a nail-biter against Charleston Catholic in their previous meeting back in April, sneaking past 5-4. Do the Huskies have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Irish turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.