Softball Preview: Tanque Verde Hawks vs. Empire Ravens
Tanque Verde is 0-10 against Empire since April of 2017 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Tanque Verde Hawks will head out on the road to face off against the Empire Ravens at 6:00 p.m. Both teams are coming into the game red-hot, with Tanque Verde sitting on five straight victories and Empire on eight.
On Saturday, while Tanque Verde put up some runs, the same can't be said for Douglas. Tanque Verde came out on top against Douglas by a score of 4-0.
Paige Hammarstrom was excellent, going 2-for-3 with a home run. Another player making a difference was Cassidy Jones, who scored a run and stole two bases while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, Empire stacked a 13th blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Thursday. They were the clear victor by a 10-0 margin over Willcox. Empire's pitching crew has been rock solid lately; the team hasn't given up a run in their last six matchups.
Callie Ward spent all five innings played on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered just zero earned runs on one hit. She has been consistent recently: she hasn't given up a single walk in seven consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, Empire got a massive performance out of Callista Drawbaugh, who scored three runs and stole a base while going 3-for-4. Drawbaugh hasn't dropped below three hits for three straight games. Abby Zsitvay was another key contributor, scoring two runs while going 3-for-3.
Tanque Verde has been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight matches, which provided a nice bump to their 11-8 record this season. As for Empire, their win was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 17-7.
Tanque Verde's speedy runners might be the difference in Tuesday's contest. Tanque Verde has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 3.3 stolen bases per game. It's a different story for Empire, though, as they've been averaging only 1.1. Will they be able to secure the bases, or will Tanque Verde continue to outrun the ball?
Tanque Verde suffered a grim 8-0 defeat to Empire when the teams last played back in March. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Empire's Kendall Freidinger, who didn't allow a single earned run while striking out 13 over seven innings pitched. Now that Tanque Verde knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
