Softball Game Preview: Shelby Valley Wildcats vs. Pike County Central Hawks

The Shelby Valley Wildcats will challenge the Pike County Central Hawks at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Shelby Valley's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Tuesday. They blew past East Ridge 11-0.

Meanwhile, Pike County Central had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 6.3 runs) and they went ahead and made it five on Tuesday. They put the hurt on the Panthers with a sharp 8-2 win. The Hawks might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won nine games by six runs or more this season.

Pike County Central's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 12-6. The home wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.3 runs over those games. As for Shelby Valley, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 5-11 record this season.

Shelby Valley couldn't quite get it done against Pike County Central in their previous meeting back in May of 2024 as they fell 5-0. Can the Wildcats avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.