The Topsail Pirates will face off against the Cleveland Rams on Friday. Topsail's pitching crew has only allowed 3.9 runs per game this season, so Cleveland's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
Topsail is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They walked away with a 6-2 win over New Bern. The victory continues a trend for the Pirates in their matchups with the Bears: they've now won four in a row.
Madyson Turlington made a big impact while hitting and pitching. She looked comfortable on the mound, tossing seven innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off six hits. Turlington was also solid in the batter's box, going a perfect 3-for-3 with one run, one double, and one RBI. That's the most hits she has posted since back in March of 2024.
Brooklyn Beatty
| 05/06/25 @ New Bern | 3 |
| 04/29/25 @ Hoggard | 2 |
| 04/03/25 vs Dixon | 2 |
| 03/26/25 vs New Bern | 2 |
| 03/13/25 vs Swansboro | 2 |
Turlington wasn't the only one making solid contact as two players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Brooklyn Beatty, who went 1-for-4 with three RBI and one double. Those three RBI gave Beatty a new career-high.
Meanwhile, Cleveland never let their opponents score on Tuesday. They blew past Lumberton 10-0. The Rams might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 13 matches by seven runs or more this season.
Cleveland got a big performance out of Maddie Murphy, who went 1-for-3 with two runs, one triple, and two RBI. Another player making a difference was Gracie Ritchie, who went a perfect 3-for-3 with one triple and two RBI.
Cleveland was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .417. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Lumberton only posted a batting average of .000.
Cleveland has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 14 of their last 15 games. That's provided a nice bump to their 17-4 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.3 runs on average over those games. As for Topsail, their victory was their fifth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 13-8.
Topsail couldn't quite finish off Cleveland in their previous meeting back in May of 2022 and fell 7-5. Can the Pirates avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
