The Apex Friendship Patriots will face off against the Cary Imps at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Apex Friendship has five straight wins, Cary has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
On Wednesday, Apex Friendship needed a bit of extra time to put away Fuquay - Varina. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 5-4 victory over the Bengals.
Caden Oxendine
| 04/16/25 vs Fuquay - Varina | 6 |
| 04/09/25 vs Panther Creek | 3 |
| 04/03/25 @ Asheville | 2 |
| 03/19/25 @ Cardinal Gibbons | 2 |
| 03/11/25 vs Hamden Hall Country Day | 2 |
Apex Friendship got a great performance from Caden Oxendine as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits while striking out six over 4.1 innings pitched. Those six strikeouts gave Oxendine a new career-high.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Hayden Fones, who scored a run and stole a base while going 3-for-4. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in doubles (two). Braden Bloom was another key player, scoring a run and stealing a base while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances.
Meanwhile, Cary suffered their closest loss since March 13th on Wednesday. They fell just short of Chapel Hill by a score of 8-6.
Markus Hart made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and scored a run while going 2-for-3. The team also got some help courtesy of Owen Green, who scored two runs and stole two bases while going 1-for-3.
Apex Friendship pushed their record up to 15-6 with the win, which was their sixth straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.5 runs on average over those games. As for Cary, their defeat dropped their record down to 4-12.
Everything went Apex Friendship's way against Cary in their previous meeting on Tuesday, as Apex Friendship made off with a 16-0 win. Do the Patriots have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Imps turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
