Softball Preview: Thornton Trojans vs. Conifer Lobos
The Thornton Trojans will challenge the Conifer Lobos at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. Thornton knows how to get runs on the board -- the squad has finished with ten runs or more in their past four games -- so hopefully Conifer likes a good challenge.
On Thursday, Thornton needed a bit of extra time to put away Aurora Central. They had just enough and edged the Trojans out 11-9.
Mya Grady made a splash no matter where she played. On the mound, she struck out eight batters over eight innings while giving up four earned (and five unearned) runs off 12 hits. She has been consistent recently: she hasn't pitched less than six innings in three consecutive pitching appearances. She was also big at the plate, getting on base in three of her four plate appearances with an RBI.
In other batting news, Thornton got a massive performance out of Raea Fisher, who fired off two home runs, five RBI, and five RBI while going 5-for-5. The dominant performance gave Fisher a new career-high in home runs. Another player making a difference was Elenna Gray, who scored three runs and stole a base while going 5-for-5.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Thornton was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .500. That's a new trend for them: their average batting average was 23.5% earlier this season, but in their last five matches they've averaged 37.1%.
Meanwhile, Conifer came tearing into Thursday's matchup with five straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 14 runs) and they left with even more momentum. They came out on top in a nail-biter against the Panthers , sneaking past 7-6.
Like Thornton, Conifer also got a great game from a two-way player: Jesse Nichols. She struck out eight batters over seven innings while giving up six earned runs off ten hits (and only one walk). Nichols was also stellar in the batter's box, going 2-for-3 with a home run, two RBI, and two RBI.
In other batting news, Eleanor Sikora was incredible, going 3-for-4 with two runs, a triple, and a triple.
Thornton has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a massive bump to their 5-10 record this season. As for Conifer, they pushed their record up to 12-3 with the victory, which was their fifth straight at home.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Saturday. Thornton hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.5 home runs per game. However, it's not like Conifer struggles in that department as they've been averaging 1.1. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down. Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more softball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
