The South Range Raiders will face off against the Canfield Cardinals at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The timing is sure in South Range's favor as the squad sits on three straight wins at home while Canfield has been banged up by three consecutive losses on the road.
On Thursday, South Range had just enough and edged out Girard 3-2.
Meanwhile, Canfield never let their opponents score on Thursday. They put the hurt on Poland Seminary with a sharp 6-0 victory. The Cardinals haven't had any issues with the Bulldogs recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive win against them.
Zain Jadallah and Anthony Groner made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, Jadallah tossed one inning while giving up no earned runs or hits. Meanwhile, Groner didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit while striking out 12 over six innings pitched. What's more, Jadallah posted three strikeouts, the most he's had since back in April. At the plate, Jadallah went 1-for-3 with one home run and two RBI, while Groner went 3-for-4 with one run, one double, and one RBI.
In other batting news, Dylan Mancini was excellent, going 1-for-3 with one run, one double, and one RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Jake Dovich, who went 1-for-2 with one run, one double, and one RBI.
South Range has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven games. That's provided a nice bump to their 12-7 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.1 runs on average over those games. As for Canfield, their win bumped their record up to 14-10.
South Range came out on top in a nail-biter against Canfield when the teams last played back in May of 2019, sneaking past 5-4. Will the Raiders repeat their success, or do the Cardinals have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
