The Mt. Pleasant Cardinals will look to defend their home field on Friday against the Gunderson Grizzlies at 4:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Mt. Pleasant is headed into the contest fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. Their pitchers stepped up to hand San Jose a 17-0 shutout on Monday. The win was nothing new for Mt. Pleasant as they're now sitting on six straight.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Gunderson, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Friday. They put the hurt on San Jose with a sharp 13-1 victory on Wednesday.
Alanna Martinez Poklong made a big impact no matter where she played. On the mound, she struck out 12 batters over five innings while giving up just one earned run off one hit (and not a single walk). Martinez Poklong has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts every time she's pitched this season. Martinez Poklong was also solid in the batter's box, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 1-for-3.
In other batting news, Breanna Bartek was incredible, getting on base in all four of her plate appearances with two runs, a triple, and a stolen base. She is on a roll when it comes to stolen bases, as she's now stolen at least one in the last four games she's played. Alexus Martinez was another key contributor, scoring two runs while going 1-for-2.
Mt. Pleasant is on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last nine games, which provided a massive bump to their 8-8 record this season. As for Gunderson, their win was their fifth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 13-4.
Mt. Pleasant might still be hurting after the 10-3 defeat they got from Gunderson in their previous meeting back in April. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Martinez Poklong, who struck out 16 batters over seven innings while giving up just one earned (and two unearned) runs off three hits. Now that Mt. Pleasant 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
