The Bennington Badgers will square off against the Standing Bear Grizzlies on Thursday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Standing Bear will be up against a hot Bennington team: the squad just extended their winning streak to four. Everything went Bennington's way against Lincoln Northwest on Tuesday as Bennington made off with a 13-2 win. With that victory, the Badgers brought their scoring average up to 6.8 runs per game.
Christian Moreno looked comfortable as he pitched four innings while giving up just two earned runs off one hit.
At the plate, Bennington got a massive performance out of Carson Kortan, who scored two runs while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Hunter Spencer, who went 2-for-3 with two runs, one triple, and one double.
Bennington always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .543. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Lincoln Northwest only posted an OBP of .350.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Standing Bear, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Saturday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 10-9 win over Beatrice on Monday. The high-scoring performance was a welcome turnaround for the Grizzlies' hitters, who had struggled in the games prior.
Standing Bear let Gavin Bullock and Crew Henry run wild. Bullock scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-3, while Henry scored two runs and stole two bases while going 2-for-3. Braxton Senters was another key player, going 1-for-3 with three RBI.
Bennington pushed their record up to 4-0 with the victory, which was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season. Those wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 8.8 runs over those games. As for Standing Bear, their victory (their first of the season) made their record 1-2.
Standing Bear's hitters will have their work cut out for them on Thursday. Bennington has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7 strikeouts per game. It's a different story for Standing Bear, though, as they've been averaging only 4 strikeouts. Will Bennington keep running through batters, or will Standing Bear buck the trend? Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other baseball content.
