The Palmetto Tigers will head out on the road to square off against the Inspiration Academy Lions at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Palmetto's pitching crew heads into the matchup hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Wednesday. They came out on top against Riverview Sarasota by a score of 5-0. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Palmetto.
Desiree Aitken made a splash while hitting and pitching. She didn't allow a single earned run and only one hit while striking out ten over seven innings pitched. Aitken has been consistent recently: she hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in nine consecutive pitching appearances. Aitken was also big at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a home run, two RBI, and a double.
Aitken wasn't the only one making solid contact as four players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Kristen Allison, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.
Meanwhile, Inspiration Academy entered their tilt with Berkeley Prep with five consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with six. They skirted past the Buccaneers 6-4.
Elle Hildreth spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered four earned runs on nine hits.
At the plate, Danika Best was incredible, going 3-for-4 with a home run, three runs, and a double. Jade Carnahan was another key contributor, scoring two runs while going 3-for-4.
Palmetto has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a massive bump to their 12-9 record this season. As for Inspiration Academy, they pushed their record up to 17-6 with that victory, which was their sixth straight on the road.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Monday. Palmetto 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 Inspiration Academy struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.7. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Palmetto suffered a grim 6-0 defeat to Inspiration Academy in their previous meeting last Friday. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Hildreth, who didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits over nine innings pitched. Now that Palmetto knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
