The Newberry Panthers will head out on the road to square off against the St. Augustine Yellow Jackets at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Newberry has ten straight wins, St. Augustine has 15 straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Newberry will bounce into Friday's contest after beating Chiefland, who they had gone 1-8 against in their nine prior meetings. Newberry's pitcher stepped up to hand Chiefland a 5-0 shutout two weeks ago. The five-run effort marked the Panthers' lowest-scoring game of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Sarah Burns
| 03/13/25 @ Chiefland | 11 |
| 03/11/25 @ Buchholz | 2 |
| 03/10/25 @ P.K. Yonge | 5 |
| 03/04/25 @ Bradford | 6 |
| 02/27/25 vs Keystone Heights | 1 |
| + 3 more games |
Not much got past Sarah Burns, who gave up just a hit and racked up 11 Ks to keep Chiefland off the board. With that strong performance, Burns is now averaging an impressive 5.4 strikeouts per game.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Tristan Layfield, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI, one stolen base, and one double. Another player making a difference was Gracie Mattson, who scored a run and stole a base while getting on base in all four of her plate appearances.
Meanwhile, St. Augustine came up short against Tocoi Creek on Thursday, falling 16-6.
Gus Campbell was cooking despite her team's loss, going 2-for-3 with one home run, two runs, and two RBI. That home run was her first of the season. Alana Heilman was another key player, scoring a run and stealing two bases while going 1-for-2.
Newberry pushed their record up to 10-0 with the victory, which was their sixth straight on the road. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.5 runs on average over those games. As for St. Augustine, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-12.
St. Augustine's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Newberry has hit smart this season, having averaged an OBP of .462. It's a different story for St. Augustine, though, as they've only averaged .327. Will they be able to contain Newberry's hitters?
Newberry was able to grind out a solid victory over St. Augustine when the teams last played back in April of 2024, winning 7-4. Does Newberry have another victory up their sleeve, or will St. Augustine turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
