Baseball Game Preview: Mattoon Greenwave vs. Shelbyville Rams

The Mattoon Greenwave will take on the Shelbyville Rams at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.

Mattoon is returning to their home field after beating Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg on theirs, despite the fact Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg has dominated at home this season. The Greenwave had just enough and edged out Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg 3-1. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Greenwave have posted since April 24th.

Jackson Horst looked comfortable as he tossed four innings while giving up just one earned run off four hits. He also tossed a walk, which is notable because Mattoon is undefeated when he allows at most one walk, but 11-12 otherwise.

Madden Johnson

Runs

05/10/25 @ Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg	2
05/06/25 vs Rantoul	2
05/03/25 @ Taylorville	2
04/08/25 @ St. Anthony	2
04/07/25 vs Charleston	2
+ 12 more games

At the plate, Mattoon's win was truly a team effort as five different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Madden Johnson, who went 2-for-3 with two runs and one double. Johnson has become a key player for the Greenwave: the team is 7-2 when he posts at least two runs, but 8-10 otherwise.

Meanwhile, Shelbyville came tearing into Saturday's game with six straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 6.8 runs), and they left with even more momentum. They came within a single run of losing the streak, but they secured a 7-6 W against the Hawks. That's two games straight that the Rams have won by just one run.

Mattoon has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 15-12 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 8.6 runs over those games. As for Shelbyville, they pushed their record up to 16-5 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home.

Mattoon was able to grind out a solid victory over Shelbyville in their previous meeting back in May of 2024, winning 6-1. Do the Greenwave have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Rams turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.