After three games on the road, Richards is heading back home. They will take on the Evergreen Park Mustangs at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. The pair have allowed few runs on average, (Richards: 3.4, Evergreen Park: 2.1) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Richards' hitters might be in the hot seat on Monday considering what happened against Lane Tech on Saturday. They fell just short of the Champions by a score of 1-0. Having soared to a lofty 15 runs in the game before, Richards' shutout was a dramatic turnaround.
Richards saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Sean Cody, who went 1-for-3 with a stolen base. Cody has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last three times he's played.
Meanwhile, Evergreen Park can now show off 17 landslide victories after their most recent contest on Saturday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Crete-Monee a 10-0 shutout. The high-scoring effort was just what Evergreen Park needed considering they were shutout in their previous matchup.
Billy Duffner was a standout: he went 2-for-3 with a home run, two runs, and two RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Caleb Keyser, who scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-3.
Richards' loss ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 15-5-1. As for Evergreen Park, their victory was their tenth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 21-7.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Monday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Richards has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.8 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Evergreen Park struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.9. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Richards might still be hurting after the 14-4 defeat they got from Evergreen Park when the teams last played back in May of 2023. Thankfully for Richards, Crispin Soto (who didn't allow a single earned run while striking out ten over five innings pitched) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
