vs
| 02/28/24 - Home | 11-7 W |
| 03/27/23 - Away | 11-0 W |
| 04/18/22 - Home | 2-3 L |
| 04/08/21 - Away | 5-0 W |
| 04/30/19 - Home | 11-1 W |
| + 5 more games |
Hamilton has gone 8-2 against Desert Ridge recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Thursday. The Hamilton Huskies will challenge the Desert Ridge Jaguars at 9:00 a.m. Hamilton's pitching crew has only allowed three runs per game this season, so Desert Ridge's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
Hamilton is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Arizona's top teams: Xavier College Prep, who was ranked seventh at the time (Hamilton was ranked 12th). Hamilton narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past Xavier College Prep 2-0. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Huskies.
Not much got past Liliana Russo, who gave up just six hits and racked up six Ks to keep Xavier College Prep off the board. What's more, Russo gave up only zero earned runs, the fewest she's had since back in May of 2024.
At the plate, Hamilton's win was truly a team effort as two different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Briley Pinks, who went 1-for-3 with one home run. That home run marked the first that Pinks launched this season.
Meanwhile, Desert Ridge came tearing into Wednesday's game with three straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 15.7 runs), and they left with even more momentum. They walked away with a 17-14 victory over the Tigers. While the Jaguars didn't have the best season last year (they finished 10-21), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past.
Aleeya Barwick was a standout: she scored three runs and stole Two bases. while going 2-for-4. That's the most stolen bases she has posted since back in April of 2024. Another player making a difference was Jacee Larson, who went 2-for-5 with three runs, one triple, and two RBI.
Desert Ridge kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 13 hits. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now got at least eight hits in 11 consecutive matchups dating back to last season.
Hamilton pushed their record up to 6-3 with the win, which was their third straight at home. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to strikeouts: they averaged an imposing seven strikeouts in those games compared to only four in the others. As for Desert Ridge, their victory bumped their record up to 6-2.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Thursday. Hamilton hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 1 home runs per game. However, it's not like Desert Ridge struggles in that department as they've been averaging 1.5 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Hamilton was able to grind out a solid win over Desert Ridge in their previous matchup back in February of 2024, winning 11-7. The rematch might be a little tougher for Hamilton since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
