The Smiths Station Panthers will challenge the Columbus Blue Devils at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
On Tuesday, it was close, but Smiths Station sidestepped Russell County for a 5-4 win. That's two games straight that the Panthers have won by just one run.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Columbus). Their pitcher stepped up to hand Sumter County a 17-0 shutout on Tuesday. The Blue Devils haven't had any issues with the Panthers recently, as the game was their sixth consecutive victory against them.
Columbus let Maddox Anderson and David Scott Livingston run wild. Anderson scored two runs and stole Two bases. while going 1-for-1, while Livingston scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-1. Those two stolen bases gave Anderson a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Michael Nottleman, who went 1-for-2 with one triple, one run, and one RBI.
They weren't the only ones working in the hit department: Columbus kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 12 hits. That's a new trend for them: they were averaging 4.9 hits per game earlier this season, but in their last 15 matches they've averaged 9.
The win made it two in a row for Smiths Station and bumps their season record up to 8-13. They've had to fight for that success though, as they only beat their opponents by an average of one runs across that stretch. As for Columbus, the victory got them back to even at 9-9.
Smiths Station was able to grind out a solid win over Columbus when the teams last played back in March of 2024, winning 7-3. Will Smiths Station repeat their success, or does Columbus have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
