Sandy is 2-7 against Central Catholic since March of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Sandy Pioneers will head out on the road to challenge the Central Catholic Rams at 3:45 p.m. Sandy will be looking to extend their current six-game winning streak.
Sandy will bounce into Thursday's contest after beating Nelson, who they hadn't topped in three consecutive meetings. Sandy walked away with a 6-1 win over Nelson on Wednesday. That's two games straight that Sandy has won by exactly five runs.
Ruby Marak spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered only one earned run on one hit. She has been consistent recently: she hasn't given up more than two walks in five consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Katy Emerson, who went 1-for-2 with two RBI and a double. Another player making a difference was Kendall Wickizer, who scored two runs and stole two bases.
Meanwhile, Central Catholic owes their pitching crew a big pat on the back after their performance on Monday. They came out on top against Reynolds by a score of 5-0. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Central Catholic.
Jaspen Lauderback-Smith made a big impact no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and only two hits while striking out eight over four innings pitched. Lauderback-Smith was also solid in the batter's box, going 1-for-3 with a stolen base and two RBI.
In other batting news, Portland Razo was excellent, going 2-for-4 with a triple and a run. Elle Merlino was another key contributor, scoring a run while going 1-for-3.
Sandy's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 11-11. As for Central Catholic, they are on a roll lately: they've won 16 of their last 17 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 20-3-1 record this season.
Sandy suffered a grim 10-3 defeat to Central Catholic in their previous meeting back in April. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Central Catholic's Gracie Huston, who struck out 17 batters over seven innings while giving up three earned runs off five hits (and only one walk). Now that Sandy 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
