The Queen Creek Bulldogs will square off against the Desert Ridge Jaguars at 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Queen Creek has 11 straight victories, Desert Ridge has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Queen Creek's pitching crew heads into the contest hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Thursday. They put the hurt on Williams Field with a sharp 8-0 win. The Bulldogs might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 15 matchups by six runs or more this season.
Annalise Jensen looked comfortable as she pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in strikeouts (four).
At the plate, Emma Reynolds was incredible, going 3-for-4 with three runs, one triple, and one RBI. Arhianna Muniz was another key player, going 2-for-3 with two runs.
Meanwhile, Desert Ridge came up short against Highland on Thursday and fell 11-7.
Jacee Larson and Brooklyn Parks did some serious damage despite the final result: Larson got on base in four of her five plate appearances with two runs, one double, and one RBI, while Parks went 2-for-4 with one home run and two RBI. Another player making a difference was Brooklyn Johnson, who went 2-for-3 with two runs and one RBI.
Queen Creek's victory was their seventh straight at home, which pushed their record up to 20-5. Those home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.4 runs on average over those games. As for Desert Ridge, their loss dropped their record down to 16-9.
Desert Ridge's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Queen Creek has been making plenty of contact this season, having averaged 10.7 hits per game. It's a different story for Desert Ridge, though, as they've been averaging 9.2 hits. Given Queen Creek's sizable advantage in that area, the Jaguars will need to find a way to close that gap.
Queen Creek was able to grind out a solid victory over Desert Ridge in their previous matchup back in April of 2024, winning 8-3. Do the Bulldogs have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Jaguars turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
