The Hononegah Indians will square off against the Harlem Huskies at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Hononegah 2.5, Harlem 4.1) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Hononegah's pitching crew heads into the contest hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Monday. They narrowly escaped with a win as the squad sidled past Belvidere North 2-0. The game snapped a strange streak: the last four times these teams have met, it?s been the away team that?s taken home the W.
The result came thanks to Irelyn O'Brien's shutout, as she gave up just three hits and racked up ten Ks. She has been consistent: she hasn't given up more than two walks in eight consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, Hononegah's victory was truly a team effort as five different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Addison Hulburt, who went 1-for-2 with one RBI.
Meanwhile, Harlem made easy work of Guilford on Monday and carried off an 8-0 win. The Huskies might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won nine matchups by seven runs or more this season.
Not much got past Rylie Adams, who gave up just a hit and racked up 11 Ks to keep Guilford off the board.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Molli Hawkinson, who went a perfect 4-for-4 with two doubles, two RBI, and one run. Those two RBI gave her a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Adriah Sholl, who went 1-for-4 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one run.
Harlem pushed their record up to 19-7 with the victory, which was their third straight at home. The home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.0 run on average over those games. As for Hononegah, their victory bumped their record up to 21-6.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Wednesday. Hononegah 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 Harlem struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.7 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Hononegah came out on top in a nail-biter against Harlem when the teams last played back in April, sneaking past 2-0. Do the Indians have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Huskies turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.