The Bloomington Purple Raiders will head out to challenge the Limestone Rockets at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Bloomington has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the game with six straight defeats, while Limestone will come in with six straight victories.
Bloomington's last matchup with Normal Community could've gone either way, but unfortunately the same can't be said for the pair's contest on Wednesday. The Purple Raiders lost 10-0 to the Ironmen.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Limestone). Everything went their way against Olympia on Friday as they made off with a 17-7 win. Considering the Rockets have won ten matchups by more than five runs this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Evan Daxenbichler made a big impact no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching three innings while giving up just two earned (and two unearned) runs off four hits. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in three consecutive appearances. He was even better at the plate, getting on base in all five of his plate appearances with three runs, two doubles, and one stolen base. That's the most runs he has posted since back in April.
In other batting news, Bryce Chapman was incredible, getting on base in four of his six plate appearances with one home run, four runs, and two stolen bases. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in RBI (three). Another player making a difference was Alec Williams, who went 2-for-5 with four RBI, one run, and one double.
Limestone was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .514. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a batting average of .320 or higher in four consecutive games.
Limestone pushed their record up to 20-12 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road. The road wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.3 runs on average over those games. As for Bloomington, their loss dropped their record down to 18-12.
