The Columbia Wildcats have the luxury of staying home for another game and will welcome the Skyview Hawks at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
On Wednesday, Columbia beat Emmett 7-3.
Hunter Christensen was a major factor no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching an inning while giving up no earned runs off two hits. Christensen was also big at the plate, going 2-for-3 with two RBI and a double.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Austin Cornell, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-3.
Meanwhile, Skyview had already won 13 in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 7.3 runs), and they went ahead and made it 14 on Wednesday. They skirted past the Knights 3-1.
Gradyen Lucas spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered one run (which was unearned) on three hits and racked up 13 Ks. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't pitched less than five innings in three consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, Skyview's win was truly a team effort as five different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Caden Yesford, who went 1-for-3 with a triple, a run, and an RBI.
Columbia's victory ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 9-7. As for Skyview, they pushed their record up to 16-1 with that win, which was their 17th straight on the road dating back to last season.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Columbia has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 6.9 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Skyview struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.3. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Columbia might still be hurting after the 11-0 loss they got from Skyview when the teams last played on April 3rd. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Lucas, who didn't allow a single earned run while striking out seven over five innings pitched. Now that Columbia knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
