The Pine View Panthers will face off against the Cedar Reds at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Pine View is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 7.4 runs per game this season.
Pine View is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Utah's top teams: Desert Hills, who was ranked second at the time (Pine View was ranked 19th). Pine View came up short against Desert Hills on Friday, falling 13-0. The match marked the first time this year in which the Panthers were not able to get on the board.
Pine View saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Kobe Goodman, who went 2-for-3 with one double.
Even though they lost, Pine View hit smart and finished the game with only two strikeouts. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now struck out at most four strikeouts in three consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Cedar entered their tilt with Hurricane on Friday with three consecutive wins, and they'll enter their next game with four. They came within a single run of losing the streak, but they secured a 4-3 W against the Tigers. Four seems to be a good number for the Reds as the squad scooped up a win with the same number of runs in their previous game.
Cooper Payne spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered just two earned (and one unearned) runs on seven hits and racked up eight Ks. That's the fewest earned runs he has allowed over his last five contests.
On the hitting side, Payton Ludlow was excellent, going 2-for-3 with two runs, one triple, and one double. That triple was his first of the season.
Cedar picked up their first road victory, bumping their record up to 8-4. As for Pine View, their defeat dropped their record down to 9-4-1.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Tuesday. Pine View hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.6 home runs per game. However, it's not like Cedar struggles in that department as they've been averaging an even more impressive 0.5 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Everything went Pine View's way against Cedar when the teams last played on March 7th, as Pine View made off with a 12-2 win. Does Pine View have another victory up their sleeve, or will Cedar turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
