The Land O' Lakes Gators will face off against the Nature Coast Tech Sharks at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Land O' Lakes 3.1, Nature Coast Tech 2.8) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Nature Coast Tech will be up against a hot Land O' Lakes squad: the team just extended their winning streak to five. The Gators came out on top against Wiregrass Ranch by a score of 4-1 on Tuesday.
Grayson Hendrix looked comfortable as he tossed four innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run any time he's pitched this season.
Christian Vollsteadt
| 04/01/25 @ Wiregrass Ranch | 3 |
| 03/28/25 @ River Ridge | 2 |
| 03/19/25 vs Nature Coast Tech | 1 |
| 03/14/25 @ Mitchell | 1 |
| 03/07/25 vs Sunlake | 1 |
At the plate, Land O' Lakes' victory was truly a team effort as six different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Christian Vollsteadt, who scored a run and stole three bases while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. Those three stolen bases gave Vollsteadt a new career-high. Another was Ethan Barclay, who went 2-for-4 with one stolen base and one RBI.
Meanwhile, Nature Coast Tech made easy work of Lecanto on Tuesday and carried off a 10-1 win. Considering the Sharks have won six matchups by more than six runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.
RAYMOND GROETSCH tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and allowed only two hits while striking out 14 over six innings pitched.
On the hitting side, Aidan O'Nolan was excellent, scoring a run while going 3-for-4. BRADY MCMURDO was another key player, scoring two runs while going 3-for-4.
Nature Coast Tech was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .375. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Lecanto only posted a batting average of .148.
Nature Coast Tech is on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last ten contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.3 runs on average over those games. As for Land O' Lakes, their win was their fifth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 13-8.
Land O' Lakes came out on top in a nail-biter against Nature Coast Tech in their previous matchup two weeks ago, sneaking past 12-10. Will the Gators repeat their success, or do the Sharks have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
