Venice is 1-7 against Lakewood Ranch since March of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Venice Indians will be playing in front of their home fans against the Lakewood Ranch Mustangs at 7:00 p.m.
Venice is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 16 runs last Thursday, they were much more limited against Riverview Sarasota on Tuesday. They fell just short of the Rams by a score of 4-2. The loss was the Indians' first of the season.
Jayde Neptune was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: she pitched six innings while giving up just two earned (and two unearned) runs off five hits. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't given up a single walks any time she's pitched this season.
At the plate, Venice saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Maddie Schilling, who scored a run while going 1-for-2.
The home team had won the previous six meetings between Lakewood Ranch and Braden River, and Lakewood Ranch kept the tradition alive. Lakewood Ranch was the clear victors by a 17-2 margin over Braden River on Thursday. With that victory, the Mustangs brought their scoring average up to 6.5 runs per game.
Lakewood Ranch got a big performance out of Erin Hogan, who scored two runs while getting on base in all three of her plate appearances. Those two runs gave Hogan a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Sarah Haynie, who scored three runs while going 2-for-3.
Lakewood Ranch always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .759. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Braden River only posted an OBP of .375.
Lakewood Ranch moved to 1-3 with that win, which also ended their four-game losing streak. As for Venice, their defeat was their first of the season and makes their record 2-1.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
