Softball: CL Hawks vs. Fredericksburg, Pre-Game
Canyon Lake pow wows before start of Hondo game. (photo by Karen Holmes)
District 28-4A Softball will have a pivotal contest this Thursday when Canyon Lake travels to Fredericksburg for a battle of two unbeaten district teams.
Don Chente says Go Lady Hawks!
The Billies have been dominating teams all season with some strong bats and in their battle with Bandera on Tuesday they used that same weapon with a 16-5 victory. Both teams were undefeated in this affair but the Bulldogs had beaten Boerne and Hondo and had one more skin on their wall.
Now with the Hawks and Fredericksburg both sporting 2-0 records, it would be an easy call to proclaim the winner of this contest having an inside track for a District Championship with one more school to play to complete the first round of district opponents.
The Billies are averaging 9.6 runs per game and have scored 30 runs in their first two district contests going into this Canyon Lake battle.
Bandera did not make it hard for Fredericksburg as they committed 6 errors and walked 7 more batters in their loss. That should give you an idea of what CL will have to do for having a chance against this Billies team.
North Shore Pharmacy says let’s Go Hawks!!
It will start in the pitching circle and then taking care of their fielding with some good crisp plays with as few errors as possible. Giving this team more at bats is not a formula for having success.
Canyon Lake has won their first two district games in different manners, with one game scoring 12 runs and then a come from behind win over Hondo.
Giving up 5 runs in those two wins was a good sign but this Opponent will have much stronger bats that looks pretty solid no matter what part of their lineup is in the batter’s box.
Canyon Lake has improved through their season starting play against some very strong schools with no team being smaller than 5A, except for that first contest against Wimberley. Those games were played in order for the Hawks to be ready for games coming up like Fredericksburg.
That strategy will be tested and seeing how CL will handle the pressure knowing that they are better than those games played to start this campaign.
Have a Great Game & Go Hawks!
Canyon Lake will probably start Maggie Banks in the circle and this young lady has been taking care of business in her last few outings and her main pitch will force more ground balls and how well the Hawks can field those hits will give an indication on how this contest, having a chance to go in the Hawks favor. Banks has some good recent pitching stints as she has appeared in the last 3 Hawk wins.
Banks has pitched 10.1 innings and allowed just 1 earned run for a 0.68 earned run average (era). During this spell of games, Banks is throwing strikes 68% of the time with the majority of those outs coming by ground balls.
CL’s top of the batting order has a lot of speed with some lethal bats to give those players a chance to round the bases for scoring opportunities.
Canyon Lake can pull off an upset but will have to be solid defensively and keep walks to a minimal. Getting stats for Fredericksburg was not an easy task but from what The ReSporter could pull up, found that the longest game played went 5 innings.
Beat Freddie Hawks!!
Getting Fredericksburg past that part of the game might be to CL’s advantage as they proved in their contest with Hondo as this group does have the ability to pull games out in those later innings of play. Having this game go into those later innings will be a good sign in hopes that some good events happening for a win.
The key to this game is no different than any other softball game but with this Fredericksburg, a magnifying glass will be applied and that can spell a win or loss based on those little things that can be taken advantage of by either school.
Go Hawks!!
