The Milford Scarlet Hawks will square off against the Ashland Clockers at 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Milford sitting on three straight victories and Ashland on five.
The home team had won the previous three meetings between Milford and Hopedale, and Milford kept the tradition alive. The Scarlet Hawks blew past the Blue Raiders 12-2 on Sunday. Milford's win was all the more impressive since the Blue Raiders were averaging only 3.52 runs allowed on the season.
Meanwhile, it was close, but on Wednesday Ashland sidestepped Dedham for a 3-1 victory. That's two games straight that the Clockers have won by exactly two runs.
Chris Bratica spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered a run (which was unearned) on two hits and racked up ten Ks. He also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because Ashland is undefeated when he allows at most one earned run, but 5-8 otherwise.
On the hitting side, Ian McKaughan was excellent, going 2-for-3 with one stolen base and one RBI.
Ashland hit smart and finished the game with only one strikeout. The team has now struck out at least five batters in five consecutive games.
Ashland pushed their record up to 13-8 with the win, which was their third straight on the road. Those road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for Milford, their win bumped their record up to 10-13.
Milford couldn't quite finish off Ashland when the teams last played back in March and fell 6-4. Can the Scarlet Hawks avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
