After three games on the road, St. Francis is heading back home. They will take on the North Branch Vikings at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. St. Francis' pitching crew has only allowed 2.6 runs per game this season, so North Branch's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
St. Francis is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 11 runs on Tuesday, they were much more limited against Andover on Thursday. They fell just short of the Huskies by a score of 2-1. St. Francis has not had much luck with Andover recently, as the team's come up short the last four times they've met.
Meanwhile, North Branch had just enough and edged Cambridge-Isanti out 5-4 on Tuesday.
Hannah Bernier spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered four runs (all of which were unearned) on three hits and racked up six Ks. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't pitched less than six innings every time she's pitched this season.
At the plate, North Branch saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Makayla Mihajlovich, who went 2-for-2 with two RBI. Another player making a difference was Victoria Thurmer, who scored two runs and stole a base.
St. Francis' defeat ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 12-5-1. As for North Branch, they pushed their record up to 6-11-1 with that victory, which was their third straight at home.
St. Francis beat North Branch 3-0 when the teams last played back in April. Does St. Francis have another victory up their sleeve, or will North Branch turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
