The Howell Central Spartans and the Winfield Warriors are set to duel on Friday.
Howell Central will head into Tuesday's contest out to bounce back: they won a close one the last time they played, but unfortunately they suffered a serious change of fortune on Tuesday. They lost 12-6 to Fort Zumwalt West.
Meanwhile, Winfield had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 10.5 runs) and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They were the clear victor by a 16-0 margin over the Warriors. Considering Winfield has won 11 matchups by more than six runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Olivia Vancleve made a big impact no matter where she played. She didn't allow a single earned run over four innings pitched. Vancleve was even better at the plate, going 3-for-3 with five RBI, three runs, and two doubles.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Isabel Reinebach, who scored four runs and stole a base while going 4-for-4. She is on a roll when it comes to stolen bases, as she's now stolen at least one in the last four games she's played dating back to last season. The team also got some help courtesy of Danielle Lang, who scored two runs while going 2-for-2.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Winfield hit smart and finished the game with only two strikeouts. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now struck out at most three strikeouts in three consecutive games.
Howell Central's loss was their third straight at home, which dropped their record down to 12-13. As for Winfield, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 14 of their last 15 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 18-3 record this season.
Howell Central couldn't quite finish off Winfield in their previous meeting back in October of 2023 and fell 6-4. Can Howell Central avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
