Cleveland is 2-8 against West End since March of 2022 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Cleveland Panthers will head out to challenge the West End Patriots at 5:00 p.m. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Cleveland took a loss when they played away from home on Friday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Friday. They were the clear victor by a 9-3 margin over Cold Springs. The game snapped a strange streak: the last three times these teams have met, it?s been the away team that?s taken home the W.
Ella Thomas
| 03/07/25 vs Cold Springs | 2 |
| 03/06/25 vs Susan Moore | 1 |
| 03/03/25 vs Cold Springs | 1 |
| 03/01/25 vs Fairview | 1 |
Ella Thomas was excellent, scoring two runs while going 1-for-2. The dominant performance gave her a new career-high in runs. Kylie Hudson also deserves some recognition as she hit her first doubles of the season.
Cleveland hit smart and finished the game with only two strikeouts. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now struck out at most four strikeouts in four consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask West End). They blew past Victory Christian 17-1 on Thursday. The Patriots might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won three matches by six runs or more this season.
Liddy Falkner made a big impact while hitting and pitching. She struck out six batters over four innings while giving up just one earned run off six hits (and not a single walk). She has been consistent recently: she hasn't given up more than one earned run in four consecutive appearances. She was also solid in the batter's box, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 2-for-3.
In other batting news, West End got a massive performance out of Braylee King, who scored two runs and stole Two bases. while getting on base in two of her four plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Kayla Dixon, who scored two runs while going 1-for-3.
West End pushed their record up to 5-2 with the victory, which was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.8 runs on average over those games. As for Cleveland, their record now sits at 4-7.
Cleveland came up short against West End in their previous matchup back in May of 2024, falling 8-3. Can Cleveland avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
