Baseball Game Preview: St. Petersburg Green Devils vs. IMG Academy Silver Ascenders

The St. Petersburg Green Devils will take on the IMG Academy Silver Ascenders at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.

St. Petersburg is probably headed into the contest with a chip on their shoulder considering Pinellas Park just ended the team's four-game winning streak on Wednesday. They fell just short of the Patriots by a score of 7-6. The home team had taken home the W every time these teams have met since April 26, 2019, but that streak is no more.

St. Petersburg got a good showing from Ethan Bess, who tossed four innings while giving up just two earned runs off five hits. What's more, Bess gave up only zero walks, the fewest he's had since back in February.

Parker Smith

Runs (Career)

03/26/25 vs Pinellas Park	2
03/21/25 vs Prospect	1
03/21/25 vs Buffalo Grove	1
03/17/25 vs South Fayette	1
02/13/25 vs Lakewood	1

On the hitting side, St. Petersburg saw eight different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Parker Smith, who scored two runs while going 2-for-3. Those two runs gave Smith a new career-high. Another was Garett Perdek, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-3.

Meanwhile, IMG Academy Silver won against University on Friday with nine runs and they decided to stick to that run total again on Wednesday. IMG Academy Silver walked away with a 9-5 win over St. Petersburg Catholic. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Ascenders.

Henry Britt looked comfortable as he tossed four innings while giving up just two earned (and three unearned) runs off seven hits. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two walks in six consecutive appearances.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Carter Rivera, who scored two runs and stole a base while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. JP Piles was another key player, scoring two runs while going 1-for-5.

IMG Academy Silver's victory was their fourth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 10-5. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.0 runs on average over those games. As for St. Petersburg, their defeat dropped their record down to 7-10-1.