Softball Preview: Raymore-Peculiar Panthers vs. Blue Springs Wildcats
A feisty cat fight will be fought when Panthers dukes it out withthe Blue Springs Wildcats at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Raymore-Peculiar has seven straight victories, Blue Springs has five straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Raymore-Peculiar is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Missouri's top teams: Blue Springs South, who was ranked ninth in their home state at the time (Raymore-Peculiar was ranked sixth). Raymore-Peculiar sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 3-2 win over Blue Springs South on Monday. That's two games straight that the Panthers have won by just one run.
Kelsie Donaldson spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered just two earned runs on four hits and racked up 15 Ks. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't tossed less than seven strikeouts in seven consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, Raymore-Peculiar saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Zariya Mabion, who went 1-for-3 with a home run. The team also got some help courtesy of Carmen Boxberger, who scored a run and stole two bases.
Raymore-Peculiar didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with 15 strikeouts. That's the most strikeouts they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Blue Springs suffered their closest loss since October 5, 2023 on Thursday. They fell just short of Liberty North by a score of 5-3.
Raymore-Peculiar's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 20-4. As for Blue Springs, they now have a losing record at 12-13.
Raymore-Peculiar came out on top in a nail-biter against Blue Springs in their previous matchup two weeks ago, sneaking past 1-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Raymore-Peculiar since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
