The Evergreen Park Mustangs will head out to square off against the Shepard Astros at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Evergreen Park has three straight victories, Shepard has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Evergreen Park took a ten-run defeat the last time they faced off against Marist, but this time they managed to keep it close and that made all the difference. The Mustangs had just enough and edged out the RedHawks 10-9.
Evan Snyder-Murphy looked comfortable as he struck out six batters over four innings while giving up just two earned runs off four hits. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two walks in 11 consecutive appearances.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Robert Welcome, who went 2-for-3 with one home run, three RBI, and two runs. That's the most RBI he has posted since back in March. The team also got some help courtesy of Noah Munoz, who went 1-for-3 with two runs, one double, and one RBI.
Evergreen Park was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .429. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a batting average of .381 or higher in three consecutive matchups.
Oak Forest hit Shepard with a four-run second inning on Thursday, which goes a long way in explaining the final result. The Astros came up short against the Bengals, falling 12-2.
Evergreen Park pushed their record up to 22-9 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.2 runs on average over those games. As for Shepard, their loss dropped their record down to 11-14-2.
Evergreen Park skirted past Shepard 6-4 in their previous meeting back in May of 2024. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Mustangs since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
