The Earlville Red Raiders will square off against the Sandwich Indians at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are strolling into their matchups after big wins in their previous games.
Sandwich will challenge a team with plenty of momentum: Earlville extended their winning streak to five on Monday. The Red Raiders put the hurt on Hiawatha with a sharp 8-1 win. The result was nothing new for the Red Raiders, who have now won six games by seven runs or more so far this season.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Sandwich). They blew past Woodstock 14-1 on Thursday. The victory continues a trend for the Indians in their matchups with the Blue Streaks: they've now won four in a row.
Brooklyn Marks made a splash while hitting and pitching. She didn't allow a single earned run while striking out 12 over five innings pitched. She has been nothing but reliable on the mound: she hasn't given up more than one earned run in five consecutive appearances. She was also big at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, two runs, and two RBI.
In other batting news, Kayden Corneils and Abigail Johnson did most of the damage at the plate: Corneils went 3-for-4 with two runs, one triple, and one stolen base, while Johnson went 3-for-4 with two runs, two RBI, and one double. Those two runs gave Johnson a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Hannah Decker, who went 2-for-3 with two runs, two RBI, and one double.
Sandwich was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .516. They are 4-1 when they post a batting average of .375 or better.
Earlville pushed their record up to 10-7 with the win, which was their fifth straight on the road. The road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.6 runs on average over those games. As for Sandwich, they now have a winning record of 10-9.
Earlville came up short against Sandwich in their previous meeting back in April of 2022, falling 8-4. Can the Red Raiders avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
