Softball Preview: Holy Spirit Spartans vs. Ocean City Raiders
Holy Spirit is 0-6 against Ocean City since April of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Holy Spirit Spartans will be playing at home against the Ocean City Raiders at 4:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Holy Spirit's pitching crew heads into the game hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Saturday. They were the clear victor by a 7-0 margin over Oakcrest.
Mia Merlino made a splash no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out six over 6.1 innings pitched. Merlino has been consistent recently: she hasn't tossed less than six strikeouts in three consecutive pitching appearances. Merlino was also big at the plate, scoring two runs while getting on base in two of her four plate appearances.
Merlino wasn't the only one making solid contact as five players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Mary Kate Armstrong, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-4. Josie Long was another key contributor, going 1-for-2 with two RBI and a double.
Meanwhile, Ocean City scored the most runs they've had all season to find success on Thursday. They put the hurt on Wildwood Catholic with a sharp 19-2 victory. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest win of the season.
Like Holy Spirit, Ocean City also got a great game from a two-way player: Brooke Douglas. She struck out seven batters over four innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off five hits. Douglas was also stellar in the batter's box, going 3-for-3 with a home run and six RBI.
In other batting news, Jessica Mooney was a standout: she got on base in three of her four plate appearances with a home run, three RBI, and two runs. Another player making a difference was Sydney Catto, who scored three runs while going 2-for-2.
Holy Spirit is on a roll lately: they've won six of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 6-6 record this season. As for Ocean City, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 10-3.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Tuesday. Holy Spirit hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.5 home runs per game. However, it's not like Ocean City struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.7. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Holy Spirit suffered a grim 13-3 defeat to Ocean City in their previous meeting on April 10th. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Mooney, who struck out nine batters over four innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off five hits (and not a single walk). Now that Holy Spirit knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
