Spanish Springs is 9-1 against Bishop Manogue since April of 2018, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Saturday. The Spanish Springs Cougars will look to defend their home field against the Bishop Manogue Miners at 11:00 a.m. Both teams come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
In what's become a running theme this season, Spanish Springs gave their fans yet another huge win on Wednesday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Galena a 10-0 shutout. The high-flying hitting performance was a huge turnaround for Spanish Springs considering their one-run performance the match before.
Not much got past Hannah Fitzpatrick, who gave up just three hits to keep Galena off the board.
On the hitting side, Spanish Springs let Brooke Baxter and Madison Rogers loose on the outfield. Baxter scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-3, while Rogers scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-3. Another player making a difference was Natalie Hagerty, who scored a run and stole a base while going 3-for-4.
Meanwhile, Bishop Manogue faced Reed in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Thursday. Bishop Manogue came out on top in a nail-biter against Reed and snuck past 4-3. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Bishop Manogue.
Kaylee Sanchez made a splash while hitting and pitching. She tossed eight innings while giving up just two earned (and one unearned) runs off eight hits (she also only allowed one walk). Sanchez has been consistent recently: she hasn't given up more than two walks in four consecutive pitching appearances. Sanchez was also solid in the batter's box, going 3-for-4 with an RBI.
In other batting news, Trella Springman was incredible, going 1-for-3 with a home run and three RBI.
Spanish Springs' victory ended a four-game drought at home dating back to last season and bumped them up to 9-3. As for Bishop Manogue, they have been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight games, which provided a massive bump to their 6-5 record this season.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Saturday. Spanish Springs hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.6 home runs per game. However, it's not like Bishop Manogue struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.5 per game. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Spanish Springs came out on top in a nail-biter against Bishop Manogue in their previous meeting back in February, sneaking past 6-4. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Sanchez, who struck out 11 batters over seven innings while giving up three earned (and three unearned) runs off nine hits. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Spanish Springs still be able to contain Sanchez? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
