The Gainesville Hurricanes will take on the Winter Springs Bears at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Gainesville will be looking to extend their current seven-game winning streak.
Gainesville is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They had just enough and edged out Springstead 1-0. Give the Hurricanes' pitching crew some credit: that's the team's third straight shutout.
Gainesville saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Leanna Bourdage, who went 1-for-3 with one stolen base and one run.
Meanwhile, Winter Springs entered their tilt with Sebring on Tuesday with four consecutive wins, and they'll enter their next game with five. They blew past the Blue Streaks 11-4. Considering the Bears have won 14 contests by more than six runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.
Tiffany Seemann made a splash no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out seven over seven innings pitched. Those seven strikeouts gave her a new career-high. She was also stellar in the batter's box, going 3-for-4 with four RBI and two doubles.
In other batting news, Winter Springs got a massive performance out of Katelyn Wassey, who went 3-for-4 with three runs, one stolen base, and one double. That's the most runs Wassey has posted since back in March. Another player making a difference was Abigail Hooper, who went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI.
Winter Springs was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .500. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Sebring only posted a batting average of .185.
Winter Springs' win was their sixth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 21-8. Those home victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 8.2 runs over those games. As for Gainesville, their record is now 17-7.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Thursday. Gainesville hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.8 home runs per game. However, it's not like Winter Springs struggles in that department as they've been averaging an even more impressive 0.6 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Gainesville came out on top in a nail-biter against Winter Springs in their previous meeting back in April of 2018, sneaking past 3-1. Will the Hurricanes repeat their success, or do the Bears have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
