The Lakeland Dreadnaughts will face off against the Mulberry Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Lakeland is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. Their pitchers stepped up to hand Ridge Community a 21-0 shutout on Wednesday. The Dreadnaughts have beaten the Bolts the last four times they've met, but they better watch out: this was the closest the Bolts has come to flipping the script.
Meanwhile, Mulberry came tearing into Tuesday's contest with four straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 5 runs), and they left with even more momentum. They came out on top against the Blue Devils by a score of 10-7. That's two games straight that the Panthers have won by exactly three runs.
Laura Robinson made a big impact while hitting and pitching. She didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit over four innings pitched. Robinson was also big at the plate, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 1-for-3. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in RBI (two).
In other pitching news, Haylie Hightower looked comfortable as she pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits. She has been consistent : she hasn't given up more than one walk any time she's pitched this season.
Back at the plate, Jaylyn Oschmann was a standout: she got on base in three of her five plate appearances with two stolen bases, two runs, and one triple. That triple was her first of the season. Another player making a difference was Lorianys Castanon Cruz, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 3-for-4.
Mulberry 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 Winter Haven only posted a batting average of .200.
Mulberry pushed their record up to 5-4 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to hits: they averaged an imposing nine hits in those games compared to only 4.5 in the others. As for Lakeland, their win bumped their record up to 2-6.
Lakeland suffered a grim 12-3 defeat to Mulberry in their previous matchup back in April of 2024. Will Lakeland have more luck at home instead of on the road? Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other softball content.
