The Birch Run Panthers will head out to take on the Ovid-Elsie Marauders at 4:00 p.m. on Monday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, these teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Birch Run will bounce into Monday's match after beating Montrose, who they had gone 0-5 against in their five prior meetings. The Panthers put the hurt on the Rams with a sharp 16-1 win on Thursday. The Panthers might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won four contests by 15 runs or more this season.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Ovid-Elsie). They blew past Mt. Morris 18-6 on Thursday. With that victory, the Marauders brought their scoring average up to 6.1 runs per game.
Mercades Grieder made a splash no matter where she played. She struck out ten batters over five innings while giving up three earned (and three unearned) runs off nine hits (and not a single walk). Those ten strikeouts gave her a new career-high. She was also big at the plate, getting on base in two of her four plate appearances with three runs and one RBI.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Haley McClung, who got on base in three of her five plate appearances with four stolen bases, four runs, and one double. She has been hot recently, having posted two or more stolen bases the last four times she's played. Kathryn Thornton was another key player, going 2-for-4 with three RBI, two runs, and one stolen base.
Ovid-Elsie was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .433. They are 2-1 when they post a batting average of .375 or better.
Ovid-Elsie is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games. That's provided a massive bump to their 3-4 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.5 runs over those games. As for Birch Run, they now have a winning record of 4-3.
Birch Run came out on top in a nail-biter against Ovid-Elsie in their previous meeting back in May of 2024, sneaking past 5-3. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Panthers since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
