The Buckeye Trail Warriors will be taking part in a tournament against the Bellaire Big Reds at 5:00 p.m. on Monday. The timing is sure in Buckeye Trail's favor as the team sits on three straight wins at home while Bellaire has been banged up by five consecutive losses on the road.
Buckeye Trail's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Wednesday. Everything went their way against Tuscarawas Central Catholic as they made off with an 8-0 win. The Warriors might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won six games by six runs or more this season.
River hit Bellaire with a seven-run third inning on Tuesday, which goes a long way in explaining the final result. The Big Reds fell 8-4 to the Pilots.
Riley Zonker put in work while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching three innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits. He has been consistent: he hasn't given up more than two hits in five consecutive appearances. He was also solid in the batter's box, going 2-for-4 with three RBI and one double. He is becoming a predictor of Bellaire's success: when he posts at least three RBI the team is 2-1 (and 5-14 when he doesn't).
In other batting news, Landon Preston made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and went 1-for-3 with two runs, one stolen base, and one double. He has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last four times he's played. Luke Heatherington was another key player, going 1-for-3 with two runs and one stolen base.
Buckeye Trail has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 13-6 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.0 runs on average over those games. As for Bellaire, their loss dropped their record down to 7-15.
Buckeye Trail was able to grind out a solid win over Bellaire in their previous matchup back in May of 2023, winning 8-3. Will the Warriors repeat their success, or do the Big Reds have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
