The Ralston Rams will venture away from home to challenge the Ashland-Greenwood Bluejays at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. Ralston is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 7.9 runs per game this season.
Ralston took a loss when they played away from home on Tuesday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Thursday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Gross Catholic an 8-0 shutout. Considering the Rams have won six games by more than seven runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Makenzie Macrander was a major factor no matter where she played. She didn't allow a single earned run while striking out ten over six innings pitched. She has been consistent recently: she hasn't given up more than two walks in seven consecutive pitching appearances. She was also solid in the batter's box, scoring a run and stealing two bases while going 1-for-2.
In other batting news, Lucy Bodnar was excellent, going 1-for-3 with a home run and two RBI. Another player making a difference was Maddy Vukov, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, Ashland-Greenwood sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 1-0 victory over Lakeview on Thursday. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Bluejays.
Not much got past Evie Hofmeister, who gave up just four hits and racked up six Ks to keep Lakeview off the board. The dominant performance gave Hofmeister a new career-high in strikeouts.
At the plate, Ashland-Greenwood saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Alexis Hasse, who went 1-for-2 with an RBI.
Ralston is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 8-4 record this season. As for Ashland-Greenwood, their record now sits at 8-6.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Saturday. Ralston hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.7 home runs per game. However, it's not like Ashland-Greenwood struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.9. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Ralston might still be hurting after the 7-1 defeat they got from Ashland-Greenwood in their previous meeting back in September of 2023. Can Ralston avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
