Softball Preview: Frederick Golden Eagles vs. Horizon Hawks
The Frederick Golden Eagles will take on the Horizon Hawks at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Frederick comes in on three and Horizon on four.
Last Thursday, everything went Frederick's way against Monarch as Frederick made off with a 12-3 victory. Considering the Golden Eagles have won seven matchups by more than five runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Payton Torres spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered three runs (all of which were unearned) on two hits and racked up seven Ks. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't pitched less than six innings in three consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Avery Salisbury, who went 2-for-5 with two runs, a triple, and two RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Ella Stromberg, who got on base in three of her five plate appearances with a stolen base and an RBI.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Frederick didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with seven strikeouts. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Monarch only tossed a.
Meanwhile, Horizon earned a 9-4 win over Monarch on Tuesday.
Horizon also let their pitcher toss all seven innings and she was also dialed-in: Kaiya Barela gave up only one earned (and three unearned) runs on six hits. The dominant performance gave Barela a new career-high in OBP.
At the plate, Belinda Martinez was excellent, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 2-for-2. Another player making a difference was Bryanna Fontes, who scored a run while going 2-for-2.
Frederick is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five games, which provided a nice bump to their 10-5 record this season. As for Horizon, their victory bumped their record up to 6-7.
Horizon's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Frederick has been making plenty of contact this season, having averaged 9.9 hits per game. It's a different story for Horizon, though, as they've been averaging 10. Given Frederick's sizable advantage in that area, Horizon will need to find a way to close that gap.
Frederick was able to grind out a solid win over Horizon when the teams last played back in August of 2019, winning 6-3. Will Frederick repeat their success, or does Horizon have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
