Softball Preview: North Port Bobcats vs. Riverview Sarasota Rams
The North Port Bobcats will be playing at home against the Riverview Sarasota Rams at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Last Tuesday, North Port suffered a rough 13-2 defeat at the hands of Sarasota. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for North Port in their matchups with Sarasota: they've now lost eight in a row.
North Port saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Hailey Rachal, who scored a run while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, Riverview Sarasota had already won five in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 5.2 runs), and they went ahead and made it six on Tuesday. They never let the Hurricanes onto the board and left with a 10-0 win. Give Riverview Sarasota's pitching crew some credit: that's the team's third straight shutout.
Allison Cole made a splash no matter where she played. She didn't allow a single earned run and only one hit while striking out ten over five innings pitched. Cole has been nothing but reliable on the mound: she hasn't pitched less than five innings in four consecutive pitching appearances. Cole was also stellar in the batter's box, going 3-for-3 with four RBI and two doubles.
In other batting news, Riverview Sarasota got a massive performance out of Ella Trandem, who scored two runs while going 3-for-4. Sierra Lipton was another key contributor, going 2-for-2 with three runs and a triple.
North Port's defeat dropped their record down to 5-14. As for Riverview Sarasota, they pushed their record up to 14-3 with that victory, which was their eighth straight at home.
North Port's speedy runners might be the difference in Thursday's match. North Port has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 4.1 stolen bases per game. It's a different story for Riverview Sarasota, though, as they've been averaging only 0.7. Will they be able to secure the bases, or will North Port continue to outrun the ball?
North Port came up short against Riverview Sarasota in their previous meeting back in March, falling 5-0. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Cole, who kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out 21 over seven innings pitched. Now that North Port knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
