Cloverdale and Clear Lake are an even 5-5 against one another since March of 2019, but likely not for long. The Cloverdale Eagles will head out on the road to take on the Clear Lake Cardinals at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Cloverdale sitting on seven straight victories and Clear Lake on three.
Cloverdale stacked an eighth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Tuesday. They blew past Kelseyville 8-1.
Charlotte Burchett spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered only one earned run on five hits. She has been consistent recently: she hasn't pitched less than five innings in 14 consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Keiko Saito, who scored a run while going 3-for-3. The team also got some help courtesy of Camryn Donahoo, who scored a run while going 2-for-4.
Meanwhile, while Clear Lake put up plenty of runs on Tuesday, the same can't be said for Upper Lake. Clear Lake put the hurt on Upper Lake with a sharp 13-0 win. Clear Lake might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team's won five contests by six runs or more this season.
Liliana Cruz made a big impact no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and only one hit while striking out 11 over five innings pitched. Cruz was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing two bases while getting on base in all four of her plate appearances.
In other batting news, Amber Smart and Camrin Pivniska did most of the damage at the plate: Smart got on base in all four of her plate appearances with three stolen bases, three runs, and four RBI, while Pivniska scored three runs and stole two bases while going 3-for-3. Another player making a difference was Atiana Patino, who scored two runs while getting on base in three of her four plate appearances.
Cloverdale's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 13-2. As for Clear Lake, their record now sits at 11-4.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Cloverdale has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 8.3 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Clear Lake struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.5. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Cloverdale came up short against Clear Lake in their previous meeting back in April, falling 7-4. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Cruz, who struck out eight batters over seven innings while giving up four earned runs off nine hits. Now that Cloverdale 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
