Baseball Game Preview: Chaparral Wolverines vs. ThunderRidge Grizzlies

The Chaparral Wolverines will head out on the road to challenge the ThunderRidge Grizzlies at 4:15 p.m. on Friday. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.

Chaparral is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Colorado's top teams: Mountain Vista, who was ranked second at the time (Chaparral was ranked 23rd). The Wolverines fell 7-3 to the Golden Eagles on Wednesday.

Tommy Humphrey made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and went 1-for-2 with one home run. Madden Kretzer also deserves some recognition as he hit his first double of the season.

Meanwhile, Wednesday just wasn't the day for ThunderRidge's offense. They fell just short of Legend by a score of 2-0 on Wednesday. The Grizzlies' loss continues a trend for the squad, making it seven in a row.

Max Bills was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he struck out seven batters over six innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off three hits.

On the hitting side, ThunderRidge saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Shane Christy, who went 1-for-4 with one stolen base.

Chaparral has been struggling recently as they've lost four of their last five matches. That's put a noticeable dent in their 11-8 record this season. That patch can't be blamed on the team's hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 6.6 runs over those games. As for ThunderRidge, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-13.

Chaparral couldn't quite finish off ThunderRidge when the teams last played back in April of 2024 and fell 8-6. Can the Wolverines avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.