Softball Recap: Mandarin Beats Sandalwood for Their Third Straight Victory

Mustangs

Margin (Wins)

02/25/25 @ Orange Park	18
03/27/25 @ Christ's Church Academy	15
03/18/25 @ Bolles	11
03/06/25 vs Andrew Jackson	10
04/03/25 vs Sandalwood	9

Mandarin barely beat Sandalwood the last time the pair played, but that sure wasn't the case this time around. The Mustangs blew past the Saints 11-2 on Thursday. Considering the Mustangs have won six games by more than five runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.

McKenna Tucker made a splash while hitting and pitching. She tossed seven innings while giving up just two earned runs off eight hits. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in strikeouts (four). She was also big at the plate, going 1-for-4 with one home run and three RBI.

In other batting news, Mandarin let Ryleigh Booth and MaKayla Oxley run wild. Booth went a perfect 4-for-4 with one home run, three RBI, and two runs, while Oxley went 3-for-4 with one home run, four RBI, and two runs. Booth has been hot recently, having posted three or more hits the last three times she's played. Another player making a difference was Ava Carter, who scored two runs while going 1-for-3.

The win was the third in a row for Mandarin, bringing their record up to 9-7. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.7 runs on average over those games. As for Sandalwood, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 5-10.

Mandarin and Sandalwood could both be facing uphill battles in their next games considering their disadvantage in the MaxPreps Florida Rankings. The Mustangs will challenge Middleburg at 7:00 p.m. on Friday with a big rank disadvantage (176 vs. 34). Meanwhile, Sandalwood (ranked 344th) will meet Nease (ranked 161st) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.