Softball Game Preview: Pickerington North Panthers vs. Buckeye Valley Barons

The Pickerington North Panthers will challenge the Buckeye Valley Barons at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Pickerington North's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Wednesday. They were the clear victors by a 10-0 margin over Canal Winchester. The high-flying hitting performance was a huge turnaround for the Panthers considering their two-run performance the game before.

Julia Deely was excellent, going 2-for-3 with two doubles, one stolen base, and one run. Addison Brownfield was another key player, getting on base in both of her plate appearances with two runs and one stolen base.

Meanwhile, Buckeye Valley had already won five in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 12.4 runs) and they went ahead and made it six on Wednesday. They put the hurt on the Rams with a sharp 16-0 win. The Barons might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 12 contests by eight runs or more this season.

Buckeye Valley pushed their record up to 16-4 with the victory, which was their sixth straight on the road. The road wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 11.7 runs over those games. As for Pickerington North, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 8-13.