The Jellico Blue Devils will challenge the Oneida Indians at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Jellico has struggled recently with nine losses in a row, while Oneida will arrive with three straight wins.
Jellico lost 18-2 to McCreary Central on Thursday.
Jellico saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Wyatt Baird, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, Oneida made easy work of Austin-East on Tuesday and carried off a 17-1 victory. With that win, the Indians brought their scoring average up to 6.2 runs per game.
Elijah Strunk was a major factor while hitting and pitching. He tossed four innings while giving up just one earned run off one hit. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in strikeouts (five). He was also solid in the batter's box, scoring three runs and stealing a base. He has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last four times he's played.
In other batting news, Eli Rector and Maddox Hutcherson did most of the damage at the plate: Rector scored two runs and stole a base while getting on base in all five of his plate appearances, while Hutcherson scored three runs and stole two bases while going 1-for-3. Rector has become a key player for Oneida: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 1-6 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Caden Shoemaker, who scored two runs and stole a base while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances.
Oneida always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .590. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Austin-East only posted an OBP of .389.
Jellico's defeat dropped their record down to 0-8. As for Oneida, their victory bumped their record up to 5-6.
Jellico might still be hurting after the 18-0 loss they got from Oneida in their previous meeting back in March of 2024. Can Jellico avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
