Softball Game Preview: Oak Grove Grizzlies vs. Northwest Guilford Vikings

The Oak Grove Grizzlies will challenge the Northwest Guilford Vikings at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Oak Grove headed into their last match having not scored more than two runs for six straight, but Asheboro let them put that streak behind them. Oak Grove never let Asheboro get on the board and left with a 20-0 win on Tuesday. The Grizzlies haven't had any issues with the Blue Comets recently, as the game was their eighth consecutive victory against them.

Kate Bertschi made a big impact no matter where she played. On the mound, she pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. Bertschi was also big at the plate, scoring a run while going 1-for-1. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in RBI (two).

Sydney Doty

Runs Batted In (Career)

03/18/25 @ Asheboro	3
04/30/24 vs Central Davidson	1
04/02/24 vs South Columbus	1
03/11/24 vs Southern Guilford	1

In other batting news, Chloe Smith and Sydney Doty did most of the damage at the plate: Smith scored three runs and stole a base while getting on base in all four of her plate appearances, while Doty went a perfect 3-for-3 with three runs, three RBI, and one triple. The dominant performance gave Doty a new career-high in RBI. Isabelle Lawrence was another key player, scoring two runs while going 2-for-2.

Oak Grove always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .844. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.

Meanwhile, Northwest Guilford made easy work of Ragsdale on Tuesday and carried off a 20-0 win. The result was nothing new for the Vikings, who have now won four games by 20 runs or more so far this season.

Northwest Guilford's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 4-5. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.3 runs on average over those games. As for Oak Grove, their win bumped their record up to 3-5.

Oak Grove came out on top in a nail-biter against Northwest Guilford in their previous meeting back in April of 2024, sneaking past 4-3. Will Oak Grove repeat their success, or does Northwest Guilford have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.