The Heyworth Hornets will challenge the Brimfield Indians at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Heyworth has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the contest with three straight defeats, while Brimfield will come in with 16 straight wins.
Heyworth came into this matchup off a tough ten-run loss on Wednesday. This time they kept things ultra-competitive, but unfortunately the final result was the same. They fell just short of Normal West by a score of 9-7 on Thursday. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest defeat the Hornets have suffered since April 8th.
Natalie Kopp made the most of her time at bat despite the final result and went 2-for-3 with two runs and one double. The team also got some help courtesy of Ellasyn Loudenburg, who went 2-for-4 with one stolen base, one run, and one RBI.
Meanwhile, Brimfield's rock-solid pitcher showed up for the team's fourth consecutive shutout on Wednesday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Kewanee an 8-0 shutout. Considering the Indians have won 16 games by more than six runs this season, Wednesday's blowout was nothing new.
Not much got past Sawyer Drury, who gave up just three hits and racked up 14 Ks to keep Kewanee off the board. Drury has been nothing but reliable on the mound: she hasn't given up more than one earned run in 15 consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, Reese Legaspi and Brooke Allen did most of the damage at the plate: Legaspi went 2-for-3 with one home run and two RBI, while Allen went 2-for-3 with two runs, two doubles, and two RBI. Those two doubles gave Allen a new career-high. Kendyl Binder was another key player, going 1-for-3 with one home run.
Brimfield hit smart and finished the game with only one strikeout. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Kewanee struck out 14 times.
Brimfield pushed their record up to 25-2 with the victory, which was their 22nd straight at home dating back to last season. The home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.6 runs on average over those games. As for Heyworth, their loss dropped their record down to 9-14.
