The Prout Crusaders will square off against the Smithfield Sentinels at 4:30 p.m. on Monday.
Prout is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Rhode Island's top teams: Westerly, who was ranked ninth at the time (Prout was ranked 13th). The Crusaders fell just short of the Bulldogs by a score of 3-1 on Saturday. Having soared to a lofty 11 runs in the game before, the Crusaders couldn't push the score so high this time.
Smithfield never got on the board in their matchup on Friday, but that sure wasn't the case in their game against Ponaganset on Saturday. They were the clear victors by an 11-1 margin over the Chieftains. The Sentinels haven't had any issues with the Chieftains recently, as the game was their fifth consecutive victory against them.
Ava Lopez spent all six innings played on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered a run (which was unearned) on five hits.
At the plate, Smithfield got a big performance out of Giannah Tutt, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI, one stolen base, and one run. That's the most RBI Tutt has posted since back in April. Another player making a difference was Mallory Cavanagh, who went 2-for-4 with three runs and one RBI.
Prout's defeat was their third straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 8-10. Those road losses can't be blamed on the team's pitching effort, having only surrendered 4.0 runs on average over those games. As for Smithfield, their win bumped their record up to 8-11-1.
Everything went Prout's way against Smithfield in their previous matchup back in April, as Prout made off with a 12-1 victory. Will the Crusaders repeat their success, or do the Sentinels have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
