The St. Mary's Lancers have the luxury of staying home for another game and will welcome the Nichols Vikings at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
St. Mary's will head into Monday's game hoping to keep the good times rolling: they only won by two when they last took the field, which might have inspired the nine-point they dealt Hutchinson-Central Tech on Monday. St. Mary's was the clear victor by a 10-1 margin over Hutchinson-Central Tech. For those curious, yes, that was the biggest victory St. Mary's has managed all season.
Corcoran Cameron looked comfortable as he pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits.
On the hitting side, Logan Gray was excellent, scoring a run while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances. The team also got some help courtesy of Santino Pedulla, who scored two runs and stole a base.
Meanwhile, Nichols waltzed into their contest on Thursday with two straight wins... but they left with three. Their pitchers stepped up to hand the Hawks a 22-0 shutout. The result was nothing new for Nichols, who have now won three matchups by six runs or more so far this season.
Kasey Kohler made a big impact no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and only one hit while striking out eight over four innings pitched. Kohler was also stellar in the batter's box, getting on base in three of his four plate appearances with a home run and two runs.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Hunter Arrison, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-3. Another player making a difference was Luke Colpoys, who scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-3.
St. Mary's win was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 4-0. As for Nichols, their victory bumped their record up to 5-3.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. St. Mary's has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 10.8 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Nichols struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.1. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
St. Mary's suffered a grim 11-1 defeat to Nichols in their previous meeting back in May of 2023. Thankfully for St. Mary's, Michael Zacher (who didn't allow a single earned run over five innings pitched) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
