Softball Recap: Palmetto Now 6-1 over Last Seven Games

It may have taken eight innings to finish the job, but Palmetto ultimately got the result they hoped for on Thursday. They walked away with an 8-4 win over the Lakewood Ranch Mustangs. This was a revenge game for the Tigers: when they faced off against the Mustangs back in March, they had to take a 24-12 loss.

MaKenna Lee

Batters Struck Out

04/10/25 @ Lakewood Ranch	13
04/09/25 @ Riverview Sarasota	10
03/31/25 vs Braden River	13
03/28/25 vs Sumner	10
03/27/25 @ Manatee	15
+ 6 more games

MaKenna Lee spent all eight innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered three earned runs on eight hits and racked up 13 Ks. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't tossed less than nine strikeouts in 11 consecutive appearances.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on LeiLani Cruz, who went 1-for-2 with three runs, one triple, and two RBI. That triple marked the first that she hit this season. The team also got some help courtesy of Keleah Peters, who went 2-for-4 with one triple, two RBI, and one run.

Palmetto is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 11-6 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.4 runs on average over those games. As for Lakewood Ranch, their defeat ended a seven-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 10-8.

Coming up, Palmetto will host Northeast at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The Tigers' pitchers better be ready for this one: the Vikings have averaged an impressive 8.6 runs per game this season. As for Lakewood Ranch, they are taking a road trip to take on Manatee at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. The Hurricanes will aim to continue their three-game streak of scoring more runs each game than the last.