vs
| 04/19/24 - Home | 5-4 W |
| 03/19/24 - Away | 4-0 W |
| 04/21/23 - Away | 1-5 L |
| 03/21/23 - Home | 8-7 W |
| 04/13/22 - Home | 7-14 L |
| + 5 more games |
East Burke and Lincolnton are an even 5-5 against one another since March of 2015, but likely not for long. The East Burke Cavaliers will look to defend their home field on Tuesday against the Lincolnton Wolves at 7:00 p.m. East Burke's pitching crew has only allowed 2.6 runs per game this season, so Lincolnton's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
Monday just wasn't the day for East Burke's offense. They took a 3-0 hit to the loss column at the hands of East Rutherford on Monday. East Burke has struggled against East Rutherford recently, as the game was their seventh consecutive lost meetings.
East Burke saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Maddox Mosteller, who went 2-for-3 with one double. Rhett Houston also deserves some recognition as he snagged his first stolen base of the season.
Meanwhile, Lincolnton had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 12 runs) and they went ahead and made it three on Friday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand the Warriors a 10-0 shutout.
Karson Cloninger was a major factor while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit while striking out nine over five innings pitched. What's more, he gave up only zero walks, the fewest he's had since back in February of 2024. He was also solid in the batter's box, scoring three runs while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances. He has become a key player for Lincolnton: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 1-4 otherwise.
In other batting news, Lincolnton let Devin Leonard and Treylen Bost run wild. Leonard scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-2, while Bost scored two runs and stole Three bases. while going 1-for-2. Lincolnton is 2-1 when Bost posts two or more stolen bases, but 2-3 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Yorye Urena, who scored a run while going 1-for-2.
Lincolnton hit smart and finished the game with only one strikeout. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their strikeout total in three consecutive matches.
East Burke's loss dropped their record down to 5-3. As for Lincolnton, the win got them back to even at 4-4.
East Burke skirted past Lincolnton 5-4 in their previous meeting back in April of 2024. Will East Burke repeat their success, or does Lincolnton have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
