Preview: North Creek Jaguars vs. Newport - Bellevue Knights
The North Creek Jaguars will look to defend their home field on Wednesday against the Newport - Bellevue Knights at 5:00 p.m. North Creek is strutting in with some hitting muscle, as they've averaged 10.4 runs per game this season.
On Monday, North Creek faced Eastlake in a battle between two of the state's top teams. North Creek came out on top in a nail-biter against Eastlake and snuck past 6-5. Six seems to be a good number for North Creek as the squad scooped up a victory with the same number of runs in their previous game.
Reagan Fleming made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, she struck out six batters over eight innings while giving up four earned (and one unearned) runs off eight hits. Fleming was also stellar in the batter's box, going 2-for-5 with a home run, three RBI, and a double.
In other batting news, North Creek let Emma Gochenour and Cayle Key loose on the outfield. Gochenour got on base in four of her five plate appearances with two RBI, while Key scored a run and stole a base while going 3-for-3. Another player making a difference was Grace Pinder, who scored two runs while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, Newport - Bellevue fell victim to a tough 12-2 defeat at the hands of Issaquah on Monday. Newport - Bellevue has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Emma Chen made the most of her time at bat despite the final result and went 2-for-3 with a triple and two RBI.
The win made it two in a row for North Creek and bumps their season record up to 6-1. As for Newport - Bellevue, their loss dropped their record down to 2-5.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Wednesday. North Creek hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 1 home runs per game. However, it's not like Newport - Bellevue struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.4 per game. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
North Creek came out on top in a nail-biter against Newport - Bellevue when the teams last played back in April of 2023, sneaking past 2-1. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Newport - Bellevue's Joyce Yang (Joyce), who struck out eight batters over six innings while giving up just two earned runs off three hits (and only one walk). Now that she won't be playing on Wednesday, will it be that much easier for North Creek to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
