Middleton is on a five-game streak of home losses, and Plant City a five-game streak of away losses. However, someone's due for a change in luck on Saturday. The Middleton Tigers will be playing at home against the Plant City Raiders at 10:00 a.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Middleton was handed a 15-run defeat in their previous outing, but that didn't affect their clutch gene on Thursday. They had just enough and edged out Blake 4-3.
Middleton saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Ahiam Olmeda, who went 1-for-2 with one RBI.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Plant City). Their pitcher stepped up to hand Prestonsburg a 15-0 shutout on Thursday. The high-flying hitting performance was a huge turnaround for the Raiders considering their one-run performance the matchup before.
Brenham Hay looked comfortable as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits while striking out eight over four innings pitched. He also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because Plant City is 5-2 when he allows at most two earned runs, but 7-8 otherwise.
At the plate, Plant City got a massive performance out of Alex Rodriguez, who got on base in all three of his plate appearances with four RBI, one run, and one double. Those four RBI gave Rodriguez a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Keegan Wilkerson, who went a perfect 1-for-1 with one home run, two runs, and two RBI.
Plant City always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .611. They are a perfect 3-0 when they post an OBP of .513 or better.
Plant City is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games. That's provided a nice bump to their 12-10 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for Middleton, their win bumped their record up to 4-15.
Middleton suffered a grim 8-0 defeat to Plant City in their previous meeting back in February of 2022. Will the Tigers have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other baseball content.
