The Lyons Lions will face off against the York Dukes at 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday. Both come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Lyons is returning to their home field after beating Oak Park-River Forest on theirs, despite the fact Oak Park-River Forest has dominated at home this season. The Lions narrowly escaped with a win as the team sidled past the Huskies 3-2. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Lions have posted since April 4th.
Caylee Wagner spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered just two earned runs on five hits.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Ava Jacklin, who got on base in three of her four plate appearances with one home run. Another player making a difference was Isabella Evans, who went 1-for-4 with one home run and two RBI.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask York). Their pitcher stepped up to hand Proviso West an 18-0 shutout on Monday. With that win, the Dukes brought their scoring average up to 6.7 runs per game.
Myka Matykiewicz was a major factor while hitting and pitching. On the mound, she kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out 11 over four innings pitched. Matykiewicz was also stellar in the batter's box, getting on base in all four of her plate appearances with three stolen bases and three runs. Those three runs gave her a new career-high.
In other batting news, Alexandra (Alex) ElEtr-Garofalo was a standout: she went 2-for-3 with three runs, three RBI, and two doubles. Those three runs gave her a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Morgen Balfanz, who went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases, three RBI, and two runs.
York always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .719. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
Lyons' victory bumped their record up to 5-7. As for York, their win was their first in the conference, bumping their conference record up to 1-2 and their overall record up to 11-6.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Wednesday. Lyons hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.7 home runs per game. However, it's not like York struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.6 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down. Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other softball content.
