The Milwaukee Lutheran Red Knights are taking a road trip to take on the St. Francis Mariners at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Milwaukee Lutheran has struggled recently with six defeats in a row, while St. Francis will arrive with eight straight wins.
Wednesday just wasn't the day for Milwaukee Lutheran's offense. They came up short against South Milwaukee on Wednesday, falling 24-0.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask St. Francis). They blew past St. Anthony 16-1 on Thursday. Considering the Mariners have won eight matches by more than seven runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Noah Heitman made a big impact no matter where he played. On the mound, he struck out 12 batters over five innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits. Those 12 strikeouts gave him a new career-high. He was also big at the plate, going a perfect 4-for-4 with one home run, five RBI, and three runs.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Zach Perry, who went 1-for-3 with two runs, one triple, and one stolen base. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in RBI (two). Another player making a difference was Kingston Liddell, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one run.
St. Francis always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .581. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
St. Francis pushed their record up to 11-6 with the victory, which was their fifth straight at home. Those home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.8 runs on average over those games. As for Milwaukee Lutheran, their loss dropped their record down to 0-12-2.
Milwaukee Lutheran suffered a grim 10-0 defeat to St. Francis in their previous matchup back in April of 2024. Can the Red Knights avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
