The Kempsville Chiefs will head out on the road to square off against the Hickory Hawks at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Tuesday just wasn't the day for Kempsville's offense. They came up short against Ocean Lakes on Tuesday, falling 10-0. The Chiefs have struggled against the Dolphins recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive lost meeting.
Meanwhile, Hickory came tearing into Tuesday's match with six straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 8 runs), and they left with even more momentum. They walked away with a 7-2 victory over the Braves.
Hickory got a great performance from Tommy Blackburn as he struck out seven batters over 5.1 innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off six hits. That's the most strikeouts Blackburn has posted since back in April of 2024.
At the plate, Ryan Kennedy was excellent, earning two runs and two stolen bases. He has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last three times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Eli Kraft, who went 2-for-4 with one stolen base and one run.
Hickory pushed their record up to 15-5 with the win, which was their fourth straight on the road. Those road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.5 runs on average over those games. As for Kempsville, they now have a losing record of 9-10.
Kempsville came out on top in a nail-biter against Hickory in their previous meeting back in April of 2017, sneaking past 1-0. Do the Chiefs have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Hawks turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
