Merrillville is 0-10 against Lake Central since April of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Saturday. The Merrillville Pirates will be staying on the road to face off against the Lake Central Indians at 1:00 p.m. Both teams come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Merrillville is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Thursday. They walked away with a 7-4 victory over Hammond Morton.
Tre'Von Stephens made a big impact no matter where he played. He struck out eight batters over 3.2 innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. Stephens was also solid in the batter's box, scoring three runs and stealing two bases while going 3-for-4. He hasn't dropped below two stolen bases for four straight games.
In other batting news, Arerion Hoover was incredible, going 2-for-3 with a home run, two runs, and a triple. Joshua Magallon was another key contributor, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 1-for-4.
Meanwhile, Lake Central put the finishing touches on their 11th blowout victory of the season on Thursday. They put the hurt on Munster with a sharp 7-1 win. The victory was familiar territory for Lake Central who now have three in a row.
Griffin Tobias spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on three hits and racked up 13 Ks.
On the hitting side, Brenden Smith was excellent, scoring two runs while going 2-for-3. Another player making a difference was Parker Robinson, who went 1-for-2 with a triple, a run, and an RBI.
Merrillville's win bumped their record up to 5-18. As for Lake Central, they have been performing well recently as they've won nine of their last 11 games, which provided a nice bump to their 19-9 record this season.
Merrillville might still be hurting after the 21-1 loss they got from Lake Central in their previous matchup back in April. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Tobias, who pitched an inning while giving up no earned runs or hits. Now that Merrillville knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
