The Wake Forest Cougars will take on the Wakefield Wolverines at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with Wake Forest sitting on seven straight wins and Wakefield on six.
Wakefield's hitters are going to have their work cut out for them on Friday: Wake Forest hadn't allowed a single run the last five times they've hit the field. Wake Forest never let Northern Durham get on the board and left with a 9-0 victory on Tuesday. Considering the Cougars have won five contests by more than seven runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.
Jil Livengood made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, she kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out 19 over seven innings pitched. She has been consistent : she hasn't given up a single earned run any time she's pitched this season. She was also solid in the batter's box, going 1-for-2 with three runs and one triple. That triple was her first of the season.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Nova Pate, who went 1-for-3 with one home run and two RBI. That home run marked the first that she launched this season. Kaylee Bowers was another key player, scoring a run while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Wakefield). Everything went their way against Rolesville on Tuesday as Wakefield made off with a 16-1 win. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team's high-flying offense, the game also marked the team's biggest victory of the season.
Aniela Piscorik looked comfortable as she pitched three innings while giving up just one earned run off four hits.
At the plate, Maddy Lampman was incredible, going a perfect 3-for-3 with one home run, three runs, and four RBI. The dominant performance gave her a new career-high in RBI. Another player making a difference was Madison Uhrig, who went 2-for-3 with one home run and three RBI.
Wakefield always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .690. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Rolesville only posted an OBP of .357.
Wakefield's win was their eighth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 9-1. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to strikeouts: they averaged an imposing 6.88 strikeouts in those games compared to only 3.4 in the others. As for Wake Forest, their record is now 7-0.
Wake Forest came out on top in a nail-biter against Wakefield when the teams last played back in May of 2024, sneaking past 1-0. Does Wake Forest have another victory up their sleeve, or will Wakefield turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
