The Apex Friendship Patriots will venture away from home to face off against the Green Hope Falcons at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Apex Friendship has six straight wins, Green Hope has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Apex Friendship's pitching crew heads into the contest hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Tuesday. They put the hurt on Middle Creek with a sharp 12-0 victory. Considering the Patriots have won seven games by more than seven runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.
Sydney Joyce
| 04/15/25 vs Middle Creek | 2 |
| 04/10/25 @ Holly Springs | 1 |
| 03/25/25 vs Panther Creek | 2 |
Sydney Joyce made a splash while hitting and pitching. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and allowing only one hit over five innings pitched. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't given up more than two walks in three consecutive appearances. She was also stellar in the batter's box, going 2-for-3 with two runs, one triple, and two RBI.
In other batting news, Cheyenne Christman was a standout: she scored two runs while going 2-for-3. Ava Primak was another key player, scoring a run while going 2-for-2.
Apex Friendship was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .464. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Middle Creek only posted a batting average of .062.
Meanwhile, Tuesday just wasn't the day for Green Hope's offense. They came up short against Holly Springs on Tuesday, falling 7-0. The shutout was out of character for the Falcons seeing as the last time the team failed to score was back in March.
Apex Friendship pushed their record up to 11-2 with the win, which was their sixth straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.3 runs on average over those games. As for Green Hope, their defeat dropped their record down to 7-10.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Thursday. Apex Friendship hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.5 home runs per game. However, it's not like Green Hope struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.8 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Everything went Apex Friendship's way against Green Hope in their previous meeting back in March, as Apex Friendship made off with a 15-3 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Patriots since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
