Softball Game Preview: St. Charles North North Stars vs. Lake Park Lancers

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Previous Games

05/30/24 - Neutral	2-1 W
05/14/24 - Home	0-1 L
04/24/24 - Away	6-4 W
06/02/23 - Neutral	2-3 L
05/10/23 - Away	21-9 W
+ 5 more games

St. Charles North is 8-2 against Lake Park since March of 2022 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Wednesday. The North Stars will host the Lancers at 4:30 p.m. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (St. Charles North 3.5, Lake Park 2.9) so any runs scored will be well earned.

St. Charles North is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Illinois' top teams: Glenbard North, who was ranked 17th at the time (St. Charles North was ranked 13th). The North Stars fell just short of the Panthers by a score of 4-3 on Monday. The North Stars' defeat signaled the end of their seven-game winning streak.

St. Charles North saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Mackenzie Patterson, who went 1-for-2 with two runs. Ella Heimbuch was another, earning one run and two stolen bases.

Meanwhile, Monday just wasn't the day for Lake Park's offense. They fell 3-0 to Wheaton-Warrenville South on Monday. Give some credit to the fans of both teams: the last four times they've met, the home team has come away the winner.

Lake Park's loss was their first in the conference, dropping their conference record down to 3-1 and their overall record down to 12-3. As for St. Charles North, their defeat dropped their record down to 11-4.

Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Wednesday. St. Charles North 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 Lake Park struggles in that department as they've been averaging 1 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.

St. Charles North skirted past Lake Park 2-1 in their previous matchup back in May of 2024. Will the North Stars repeat their success, or do the Lancers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.