Softball Game Preview: Grand Prairie Gophers vs. De Kalb Bears

The Grand Prairie Gophers will square off against the De Kalb Bears at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Grand Prairie took a loss when they played away from home on Saturday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Monday. They blew past Hillcrest 17-1. With that win, the Gophers brought their scoring average up to 7 runs per game.

Katherine Ramirez was a standout: she went 3-for-4 with four RBI, one run, and one double. Those RBI were her first of the season. Angela Amaya was another key player, scoring two runs and stealing two bases while going 1-for-2.

Grand Prairie hit smart and finished the game with only one strikeout. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now struck out at most five strikeouts in four consecutive matchups.

Meanwhile, De Kalb had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 6.3 runs) and they went ahead and made it four on Monday. Their pitchers stepped up to hand the Tigers a 9-0 shutout.

De Kalb's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 6-1. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.3 runs over those games. As for Grand Prairie, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four games, which provided a massive bump to their 4-6 record this season.