The Bloomington South Panthers will head out to square off against the Columbus East Olympians at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Bloomington South has six straight victories, Columbus East has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Bloomington South is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They put the hurt on Jennings County with a sharp 12-0 win on Wednesday. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest victory of the season.
Collin Marcum tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and allowing only two hits while striking out six over five innings pitched. He has become a key player for Bloomington South: the team is undefeated when he allows at most three hits, but 4-5 otherwise.
Connor Osborne
| 04/30/25 vs Jennings County | 4 |
| 04/27/24 @ Castle | 3 |
| 04/13/24 @ East Central | 3 |
| 03/30/24 vs Evansville Central | 3 |
| 04/26/25 vs New Albany | 2 |
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Connor Osborne, who went 2-for-3 with one home run, four RBI, and two runs. Those four RBI gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Reid Walker, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with two stolen bases, three runs, and one RBI.
Bloomington South always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .536. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
Meanwhile, Columbus East came up short against Jennings County on Thursday and fell 7-3.
Columbus East saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Marcus Wilkinson, who went 2-for-3 with one run and one double.
Bloomington South's win was their fifth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 7-5. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for Columbus East, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-10.
Bloomington South beat Columbus East 8-5 in their previous meeting back in April of 2024. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Panthers since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
