Last year, the Force just missed the playoffs. They tied for 4th with Rockford at 24-20, missing a trip to Kimberly by only a tie-breaker. It would appear that history will not be repeating itself, as they are already at 20 wins, against 12 losses coming in to this series. But we may have something to say about that.

The Force team average last year was .251. This year they are hitting at a .271 clip, thanks to league leader Kellie Wilkerson's .451. Also over .300 for the Force are Sharonda McDonald (.323, 4th in the league) and Chelsea Spencer (.313).  They are not a huge HR-hitting team, with Wilkerson, Trena Peel, and Savannah Long all tied for the team lead, with 4. Right behind are Megan Gibson and Spencer with 3. Spencer leads in doubles (7), and McDonald in steals (10). The increased hitting has resulted in nearly one extra run per game (2.95 to 3.81).

Although they traded away Rookie of the Year pitcher Kristina Thorson (14-5, 1.20 ERA), their pitching has also significantly improved. The team ERA last year was 3.28, last in the NPF. Currently, they stand at 2.60, good for 3rd in the league. This is largely thanks to their well-known draftees, Katie Burkhart (7-3, 1.84) and Megan Gibson. (7-2, 2.00). Other pitchers for the Force include Margo Prius, Amy Harre, and Stacy Birk. Harre is the only member of the 3-person package that Philly got in exchange for Thorson who is still with the team. She pitched 1 scoreless inning against us last year with Chicago. Prius and Birk are returnees from the 2007 squad.

In our two series against the Force last year, both Birk and Prius had one good outing, and several not so good outings. Birk beat us on June 8 in Philly, completing all 7 innings while giving up just 2 runs on 5 hits. But in 3 other appearances, she gave up 12 runs in 9.1 innings. Birk gave up 2 HRs to Larquier and one each to Oli and Jessica Moore.

Prius nearly beat us at home on July 19. In that game, she held us to just 1 run over the first six innings. She lost in the seventh, thanks in part to Amber Jackson's walk-off HR. In her 2 other appearances, we scored 7 runs in 3 innings, with HRs by Oli and Moore.

Obviously, we didn't face rookies Burkhart and Gibson. But we know that they will be among the best we've faced this season. Burkhart is rapidly climbing the NPF leader boards, after getting a late start. She is third in Ks and ERA.

The Force just finished (literally, just hours ago) their 4 game homestand against the Chicago Bandits. They got rained out on Wednesday, so they played a double-header on Thursday before driving down to DC to play on Friday. It will be interesting to see how this affects the team, at least for the first game of the series. Burkhart pitched 5 innings on Thursday, so we will likely not see her until Saturday. We may start Desi on Friday to save Pauly for the matchup with Burkhart.

Thanks to the Bandits winning 3 of 4, we are now 1 game ahead of the Force in the standings. I think our pitchers match up well, so I'm going to predict 3 wins. We'll take 1 of 2 from Burkhart, and win both of the games she doesn't start.

After this 4-game series, both team travel to Philly for 4 more. These 8 games could decide first place in the NPF, though the Bandits aren't out of the picture either.