Sacred Heart has gone a perfect 10-0 against North Forrest recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Saturday. The Crusaders will take on the Eagles at 11:00 a.m. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Sacred Heart sitting on seven straight victories and North Forrest on eight.
On Thursday, Sacred Heart made easy work of East Marion and carried off a 12-5 win. The result was nothing new for the Crusaders, who have now won 13 matches by six runs or more so far this season.
Gabriel Pipkins
| 04/03/25 vs East Marion | 7 |
| 03/28/25 vs Lumberton | 4 |
| 03/21/25 vs Enterprise | 3 |
| 02/15/24 vs Collins | 3 |
| 04/15/24 @ Moss Point | 1 |
Gabriel Pipkins made a splash while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, striking out seven batters over four innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits (and not a single walk). Those seven strikeouts gave him a new career-high. He was also solid in the batter's box, getting on base in three of his four plate appearances with one triple and one run.
In other batting news, Darren Brown and Kyron Murphy did most of the damage at the plate: Brown scored a run while going 1-for-4, while Murphy scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-3. Murphy has become a key player for Sacred Heart: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 5-7 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Gary Duckworth, who scored two runs and stole a base.
Meanwhile, North Forrest never let their opponents score on Thursday. Everything went their way against Mount Olive as they made off with a 12-0 victory. Considering the Eagles have won eight games by more than six runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
The team relied heavily on Chancellor Rogers, who scored a run while going 2-for-3. Levi Thompson also deserves some recognition as he hit his first double of the season.
North Forrest was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .409. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a batting average of .357 or higher in four consecutive contests.
North Forrest's win was their seventh straight at home, which pushed their record up to 11-4. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.1 runs on average over those games. As for Sacred Heart, their record now sits at 15-7.
Everything went Sacred Heart's way against North Forrest in their previous matchup back in March of 2023, as Sacred Heart made off with a 21-7 win. Do the Crusaders have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Eagles turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
