The Gila Ridge Hawks will head out to square off against the Sunnyslope Vikings at 3:45 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Gila Ridge has three straight wins, Sunnyslope has eight straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Gila Ridge's pitching crew heads into the game hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Thursday. They didn't even let Paradise Valley on the board, marking Gila Ridge's second-straight 18-0 shutout. Fans of the Hawks have seen this all before: every one of the games they've played this season has ended in a blowout of 6+ runs.
Violet Silva made a splash while hitting and pitching. She pitched 2.1 innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. She has been nothing but reliable on the mound: she hasn't given up more than one hit any time she's pitched this season. She was also solid in the batter's box, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 2-for-3.
In other batting news, Tayler Reischmann was a standout: she went a perfect 3-for-3 with one home run, three runs, and three RBI. Alexis Figueroa was another key player, going a perfect 3-for-3 with two runs, two doubles, and one triple.
Gila Ridge was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .577. The last time their batting average was this high was back in April of 2024.
Meanwhile, Sunnyslope might've scored the first runs on Thursday, but it was Shadow Ridge who claimed the real prize. Sunnyslope fell 9-4 to Shadow Ridge.
Kindness Williams spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered just two earned (and seven unearned) runs on eight hits. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in strikeouts (three).
On the hitting side, Sam Hyde was cooking despite her team's loss, going 2-for-4 with one home run and one double. Another player making a difference was Molly Nordstrom, who scored two runs while going 1-for-2.
Gila Ridge's record is now 3-0. As for Sunnyslope, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-2.
