The Murphysboro Red Devils will head out on the road to challenge the Carterville Lions at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Murphysboro sitting on six straight victories and Carterville on 22.
On Friday, Murphysboro narrowly escaped with a win as the team sidled past Harrisburg 3-2.
Ayla Smith spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered only one earned (and one unearned) run on two hits. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't pitched less than five innings in seven consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Sarah Cook, who went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI.
Meanwhile, Carterville stacked a 16th blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Friday. Their pitchers stepped up to hand Massac County a 10-0 shutout.
Taryn Ford made a big impact no matter where she played. She tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. Ford was even better at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a home run and four RBI.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Colbie Bennett, who scored three runs and stole two bases while getting on base in three of her four plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Amayah Doyle, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-3.
Murphysboro is on a roll lately: they've won 11 of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 16-4 record this season. As for Carterville, they pushed their record up to 22-1 with that victory, which was their ninth straight on the road dating back to last season.
Murphysboro might still be hurting after the 14-0 loss they got from Carterville in their previous meeting last Tuesday. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Ford, who didn't allow a single earned run and only one hit while striking out 12 over five innings pitched. Now that Murphysboro knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
