Softball Preview: Mercy Bears vs. Notre Dame Regents
Mercy is 9-1 against Notre Dame since April of 2019, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Tuesday. The Mercy Bears will be playing at home against the Notre Dame Regents at 4:00 p.m. Mercy is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 8.8 runs per game this season.
Mercy will head into Wednesday's contest ready to turn things around: they couldn't quite beat Menlo-Atherton on Wednesday, but the two-run margin was a huge improvement compared to the seven-run defeat they were dealt last Thursday. Mercy fell just short of Menlo-Atherton by a score of 8-6. Mercy has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
G Ortega and R Lask stepped up to the plate in a big way. Ortega scored two runs and stole a base while going 3-for-4, while Lask scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-4. Ortega has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last five times she's played. A Anderson was another key contributor, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, it may have taken nine innings to finish the job, but the Regents ultimately got the result they hoped for on Thursday. They won by a run and slipped past the Tigers 6-5. Six seems to be a good number for the Regents as the squad scooped up a win with the same number of runs in their previous game.
Avery Provenzano made a splash no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out 16 over nine innings pitched. Provenzano was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 4-for-5.
In other batting news, Kamille Beals was excellent, going 2-for-5 with three RBI and a triple. Another player making a difference was Jaz Mina, who scored a run while getting on base in three of her five plate appearances.
Mercy now has a losing record at 7-8-1. As for the Regents, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five games, which provided a nice bump to their 11-6 record this season.
Notre Dame's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Mercy has hit smart this season, having averaged an OBP of .469. It's a different story for Notre Dame, though, as they've only averaged .339. Will they be able to contain Mercy's hitters?
Mercy came up short against Notre Dame in their previous matchup on April 11th, falling 7-3. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Provenzano, who didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out 13 over seven innings pitched. Now that Mercy knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
