The Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy Royals will challenge the Elyria Catholic Panthers at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy has struggled recently with five losses in a row, while Elyria Catholic will arrive with 16 straight victories.
On Monday, Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy didn't have quite enough to beat Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin and fell 2-1.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Elyria Catholic). Their pitcher stepped up to hand Lake Catholic a 20-0 shutout on Monday. The result was nothing new for the Panthers, who have now won ten contests by six runs or more so far this season.
Harper Morgan made a splash no matter where she played. She kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out 11 over five innings pitched. That's the most strikeouts she has posted since back in March. She was also big at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two doubles, one run, and one RBI.
In other batting news, Elyria Catholic let Allison Bailey and Jessica Conner run wild. Bailey went a perfect 3-for-3 with one home run, two runs, and two RBI, while Conner went 3-for-4 with three runs, four RBI, and one double. Those two runs gave Bailey a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Kailey Tomasch, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with three RBI, two runs, and one triple.
Elyria Catholic was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .647. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a batting average of .318 or higher in three consecutive matches.
Elyria Catholic's win was their 11th straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 16-0. Those road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.8 runs on average over those games. As for Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-5.
Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy might still be hurting after the 10-1 loss they got from Elyria Catholic when the teams last played on Wednesday. Will the Royals have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.
