John Champe is 0-7 against Woodgrove since March of 2016 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The John Champe Knights will be staying on the road to face off against the Woodgrove Wolverines at 6:30 p.m. Both teams come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
John Champe is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They skirted past Loudoun Valley 8-6.
Ella Dawson spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered six earned runs on ten hits and racked up eight Ks.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Sydney Perez, who went 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs, and two RBI. Another player making a difference was Maya Thaivalappil, who went 1-for-4 with a home run and two RBI.
Meanwhile, Woodgrove put another one in the bag on Tuesday to keep their perfect season alive. They never let Heritage onto the board and left with a 12-0 victory. Considering Woodgrove has won 17 games by more than nine runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.
Heritage's batters probably weren't too happy with Abbey Lane, who pitched a no hitter and racked up 15 Ks (she gave up no walks). Lane has been nothing but reliable on the mound: she hasn't pitched less than five innings in 20 consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, Woodgrove let Abbey Davis and Faith Barker loose on the outfield. Davis scored three runs while going 3-for-4, while Barker scored two runs while going 3-for-3. Erynn Thompson was another key contributor, scoring a run while going 2-for-4.
John Champe has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 12-9 record this season. As for Woodgrove, they pushed their record up to 22-0 with that win, which was their 26th straight at home dating back to last season.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Thursday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. John Champe has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.5 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Woodgrove struggles in that department as they've been averaging 12.1. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
John Champe suffered a grim 10-0 defeat to Woodgrove in their previous matchup on Friday. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Lane, who didn't allow a single earned run and only one hit while striking out 11 over six innings pitched. Now that John Champe knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
