The Great Bend Panthers will challenge the Emporia Spartans on Tuesday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Great Bend 3.4, Emporia 3.2) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Great Bend's usually-dominant pitching crew will be looking to make up for Friday's struggle, when Bishop Carroll hitters got past them. The Panthers took a 10-5 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Golden Eagles on Friday.
Trenton Kern made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and got on base in three of his four plate appearances with three RBI and one double. Another player making a difference was Koehn Ribordy, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with two runs.
Meanwhile, Emporia hadn't done well against Topeka recently (they were 2-7 in their previous nine matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Friday. The Spartans' pitchers stepped up to hand the Trojans a 12-0 shutout. Considering the Spartans have won five matches by more than eight runs this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Emporia pushed their record up to 7-4 with the win, which was their fourth straight on the road. Those road victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 17.0 runs over those games. As for Great Bend, their defeat ended a five-game streak of away wins and brought them to 9-3.
Great Bend took their win against Emporia in their previous matchup back in April of 2024 by a conclusive 14-4 score. Will the Panthers repeat their success, or do the Spartans have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
