It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Palm Beach Gardens had no problem doing just that on Thursday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand the Melbourne Bulldogs a 5-0 shutout. For the Gators, this counts as revenge for the 5-1 win the Bulldogs walked away with the last time they faced one another back in April of 2022.
Not much got past Shea Towns, who gave up just two hits and racked up 18 Ks to keep Melbourne off the board. Towns has been nothing but reliable on the mound: she hasn't given up more than one earned run in nine consecutive appearances.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Kaman Reno, who went 1-for-3 with two RBI, one run, and one double. The team also got some help courtesy of Victoria Scott, who went 2-for-3 with one run.
Palm Beach Gardens has been performing well recently as they've won 11 of their last 13 matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 19-7 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.2 runs on average over those games. As for Melbourne, their loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 15-13.
Looking ahead, Palm Beach Gardens will challenge Bloomingdale at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (the Gators 2.4, the Bulls 3.5) so any runs scored will be well earned. Melbourne does not have any more games scheduled as of now.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
