Softball Preview: Ashland-Greenwood Bluejays vs. Ralston Rams
The Ashland-Greenwood Bluejays will challenge the Ralston Rams at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. Both have allowed few runs on average, (Ashland-Greenwood: 3.8, Ralston: 3.8) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Ashland-Greenwood's pitching crew heads into the game hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Thursday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Lakeview , sneaking past 1-0. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Bluejays.
Not much got past Evie Hofmeister, who gave up just four hits and racked up six Ks to keep Lakeview off the board. The dominant performance gave Hofmeister a new career-high in strikeouts.
On the hitting side, Ashland-Greenwood's victory was truly a team effort as two different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Alexis Hasse, who went 1-for-2 with an RBI.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Ralston, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Tuesday. Everything went their way against Gross Catholic on Thursday as Ralston made off with an 8-0 win. Considering the Rams have won six matchups by more than seven runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Makenzie Macrander was a major factor no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out ten over six innings pitched. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't given up more than two walks in seven consecutive pitching appearances. She was also big at the plate, scoring a run and stealing two bases while going 1-for-2.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Lucy Bodnar, who went 1-for-3 with a home run and two RBI. Another player making a difference was Maddy Vukov, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-2.
Ashland-Greenwood's victory bumped their record up to 8-6. As for Ralston, they pushed their record up to 8-4 with that win, which was their fifth straight at home.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Saturday. Ashland-Greenwood hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.9 home runs per game. However, it's not like Ralston 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.
Everything went Ashland-Greenwood's way against Ralston in their previous matchup back in September of 2023 as Ashland-Greenwood made off with a 7-1 victory. Does Ashland-Greenwood have another victory up their sleeve, or will Ralston turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
