The Pride's title hopes go through the Akron Racers. The Pride are 13-3 against the Racers and are coming off a series sweet in Akron last weekend. In the season series the Pride have outscored the Racers by over 4 runs. the last place Racers have very little to lose. Given the expectations put on the Pride and there lose last year, I would have to say the Racers may come out and play a lot more loose than the Pride. That could be something they use to their advantage, particularly if they get up early in game one or take a series lead with a Game 1 win. As someone who has watched the Racers all year long, I can promise you they come out to win and play hard! The Pride aren't taking the Racers lightly as Megan Willis points out when I asked her if there were any differences this year heading into the postseason, "I think so, we got to play Monica a lot this year. We have progressively gotten a lot better. It think its to our advantage that they have pitched her so many times against us, not that we're overlooking the Racers by any means, we have to get by the Racers first. But it's always been in the back of our mind that we're going to see Monica in the end. Like I said, we have gotten progressively better and we need to keep getting good at-bats against her because she did a great job against us last year."
Seeing Monica a lot through the year has helped, unfortunately Monica was still 4-2 against the Pride. The biggest thing the Pride have to worry about is Monica combating their best pitcher, Cat Osterman, very well. In head-to-head meetings Monica was 3-0 against Cat, who only gave up 3 runs in the three meetings. Head-to-head the teams split the season series 8-8, with the Pride winning 7 in a row against the Bandits and outscoring them by a run and a half. That type of late season dominance of a team would be a great confidence boost! the problem the Pride have to over come is that all 7 of those wins weren't in Chicago. When playing at Rosemont, where the Championship Series is, the Bandits were 7-1 against the Pride. "Even though we are confident, I also see a desire to do better, because last year we won the regular season and lost in the championship series." says Jessica Mendoza, "Really, at the end of the day, we wanna win next week, and that's what were here for."
The other first round series between the Bandits and the Diamonds could also be very interesting. The Diamonds have played free all year, made great improvements and have to be coming into the playoffs with a great mindframe. The Diamonds have beat the Bandits 7 times this year, as opposed to 9 loses. Despite having a 2 game edge in the series, the Bandits were outscored by 9 runs. Another huge mental advantage the Diamonds can carry is the fact that they beat Chicago 5 out of 7 games at Rosemont Stadium, outscoring the Bandits by 15 runs!
It'll be a great weekend of softball! Chicago will be hungry for a repeat, the Diamonds and the Racers will be looking to surprise someone and the Pride will be looking to get some redemption! "We're all just out to win it." says Rookie of the Year Kristyn Sandberg, "It's something we all set our mind to at the beginning of the season and now that it's here, it's time to get tough and gritty and go get it."
@AkronRacers
@USSSAPride
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