Softball Preview: Maplewood Rockets vs. Bristol Panthers
Maplewood is 2-8 against Bristol since May of 2016 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Maplewood Rockets will be playing in front of their home fans against the Bristol Panthers at 5:00 p.m. Having both just faced considerable losses, both teams are looking to turn things around.
Maplewood unfortunately witnessed the end of their five-game winning streak on Wednesday. Their rough 8-2 defeat to Pymatuning Valley might stick with them for a while. Maplewood was red-hot at the plate headed into the contest (they scored no less than ten runs in the five games prior) but Pymatuning Valley's pitchers proved too tough.
Raegan Krieg made the most of her time at bat despite the final result and went 2-for-3 with a triple, a stolen base, and a run. She is on a roll when it comes to stolen bases, as she's now stolen at least one in the last three games she's played.
Meanwhile, Bristol fell victim to Mathews and their airtight pitching crew on Tuesday. They wound up on the wrong side of a tough 12-0 walloping at the hands of the Mustangs. The matchup marked that first time this season in which Bristol was not able to get on the board.
Having lost for the first time this season, Maplewood fell to 5-1. As for Bristol, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 1-4.
Bristol's hitters will have their work cut out for them on Thursday. Maplewood has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 6.8 strikeouts per game. It's a different story for Bristol, though, as they've been averaging only 3.8. Will Maplewood keep running through batters, or will Bristol buck the trend?
Maplewood skirted past Bristol 7-6 when the teams last played back in May of 2023. Will Maplewood repeat their success, or does Bristol have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
