Softball Game Preview: Normal Community Ironmen vs. Streator Bulldogs

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Previous 6 Games

05/11/24 - Home	5-4 W
05/11/24 - Home	11-5 W
05/13/23 - Home	10-3 W
05/13/23 - Away	4-3 W
05/14/22 - Home	16-13 W
05/14/22 - Home	10-0 W

Normal Community has gone a perfect 6-0 against Streator recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Saturday. The Ironmen will venture away from home to take on the Bulldogs at 10:00 a.m. Normal Community will be looking to extend their current five-game winning streak.

Five must be Normal Community's lucky number: they beat Champaign Central with that score not once but twice on Thursday. The Ironmen beat the Maroons by the very same score they won with in their prior game: 5-3.

The team relied heavily on Bailey Engel, who went a perfect 1-for-1 with two stolen bases, one run, and one RBI. That's the most stolen bases she has posted since back in April. The team also got some help courtesy of Hayley Michels, who went 1-for-2 with two stolen bases and one run.

Normal Community hit smart and finished the game with only one strikeout. They are a perfect 8-0 when they post two or more strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Streator came up short against Wilmington on Tuesday, falling 10-3. The loss continues a trend for the Bulldogs in their meetings with the Wildcats: they've now lost four in a row.

Streator saw seven different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Morgan Kostal, who went 1-for-4 with one run and one RBI. Kyleigh Essman also deserves some recognition as she brought in her first RBI of the season.

Normal Community's victory was their tenth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 17-10. Those home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.0 runs on average over those games. As for Streator, their defeat dropped their record down to 8-19.

Normal Community came out on top in a nail-biter against Streator in their previous matchup back in May of 2024, sneaking past 5-4. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Ironmen since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.