Softball Preview: Smoky Hill Buffaloes vs. Cherokee Trail Cougars
The Smoky Hill Buffaloes will head out to take on the Cherokee Trail Cougars at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Smoky Hill is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 18 runs on Wednesday, they were much more limited against Eaglecrest on Saturday. They lost 13-1 to the Raptors. The Buffaloes haven't had much luck with the Raptors recently, as the team's come up short the last three times they've met.
Smoky Hill saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Nikiah Light, who went 2-for-3 with an RBI.
Meanwhile, Cherokee Trail waltzed into their contest on Saturday with six straight wins... but they left with seven. They walked away with an 11-6 win over the Wolves.
Emma Rice made a splash while hitting and pitching. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out nine over 5.1 innings pitched. Rice was also stellar in the batter's box, going 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI.
In other batting news, Icela Ciocarlan was incredible, firing off two home runs and three RBI while going 2-for-3. The dominant performance gave her a new career-high in home runs. Another player making a difference was Isabelle Becker, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-3.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Cherokee Trail didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with 11 strikeouts. That's the most strikeouts they've managed all season.
Smoky Hill's defeat dropped their record down to 2-11. As for Cherokee Trail, they pushed their record up to 10-2 with that victory, which was their tenth straight on the road dating back to last season.
The pitchers for both teams better look sharp on Tuesday as neither team is afraid to steal. Smoky Hill has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 3.1 stolen bases per game. However, it's not like Cherokee Trail struggles in that department as they've been averaging 3.7. The only question left is which team can snag more.
Smoky Hill might still be hurting after the 16-6 loss they got from Cherokee Trail when the teams last played back in September of 2023. Can Smoky Hill avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
