The Versailles Tigers will square off against the Sidney Yellowjackets at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Versailles has eight straight wins, Sidney has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
If Versailles beats Sidney with seven runs on Thursday, it's going to be the team's new lucky number: they've won their past two contests with that exact score. The Tigers didn't even let Carroll on the board on Tuesday, marking the Tigers' second-straight 7-0 shutout. Considering the Tigers have won ten games by more than five runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.
Owen Mendenhall tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run over 5.1 innings pitched.
On the hitting side, Versailles saw seven different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Sam Deland, who went 1-for-4 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one run. Jace Watren was another, going 1-for-4 with two runs and one double.
Meanwhile, Sidney came up short against Northmont on Wednesday and fell 7-4.
Sidney also got a good showing from Elijah Cotterman, who tossed four innings while giving up just one earned (and two unearned) runs off two hits. Cotterman has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in four consecutive appearances.
At the plate, Ashton Rose was cooking despite his team's loss, going 2-for-3 with two doubles and one RBI.
Versailles pushed their record up to 16-4 with the victory, which was their sixth straight on the road. Those road wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.3 runs on average over those games. As for Sidney, their loss dropped their record down to 6-17.
Sidney's hitters will have their work cut out for them on Thursday. Versailles has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.3 strikeouts per game. It's a different story for Sidney, though, as they've been averaging only 3.1 strikeouts. Will Versailles keep running through batters, or will the Yellowjackets buck the trend? Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.
