The Tanque Verde Hawks are taking a road trip to challenge the Sahuaro Cougars at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Tanque Verde has four straight victories, Sahuaro has four straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Tanque Verde made up a huge gap compared to their last game against Rincon/University, but they still couldn't quite topple them. Tanque Verde never let Rincon/University get on the board and left with a 10-0 win on Thursday. Considering the Hawks have won five matches by more than seven runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Gabby Fukunaga
| 03/20/25 vs Rincon/University | 6 |
| 02/28/25 vs Canyon del Oro | 1 |
| 02/28/25 vs Tucson High Magnet School | 2 |
| 02/27/25 vs Cienega | 2 |
| 02/27/25 vs Desert Vista | 2 |
| + 7 more games |
Gabby Fukunaga made a splash while hitting and pitching. She didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits while striking out six over four innings pitched. That's the most strikeouts she has posted since back in April of 2024. She was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing a base.
In other batting news, Aubrey Skaggs was excellent, going 1-for-2 with three RBI, one stolen base, and one double. Those three RBI gave her a new career-high. Julia Pratt was another key player, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 1-for-3.
Sahuaro might be feeling deja-vu: they lost 20-2 to Poston Butte, which was the same score (and result) they got the week prior.
Sahuaro saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Kaydence Cox, who scored a run while getting on base in all three of her plate appearances. Madison Basteen also deserves some recognition as she brought in her first RBI of the season.
Even though they lost, Sahuaro always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .545. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
Tanque Verde pushed their record up to 10-2 with the victory, which was their tenth straight at home dating back to last season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.1 runs on average over those games. As for Sahuaro, their loss dropped their record down to 0-4.
Sahuaro's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Tanque Verde hasn't had any issues making contact this season, having earned a batting average of .364. It's a different story for Sahuaro, though, as they've only averaged .200. Will they be able to contain Tanque Verde's hitters?
Tanque Verde was able to grind out a solid victory over Sahuaro in their previous matchup back in March of 2024, winning 9-5. Does Tanque Verde have another victory up their sleeve, or will Sahuaro turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
