The Palo Verde Panthers will challenge the Shadow Ridge Mustangs at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Palo Verde will come into the game with an undefeated record on the line.
Palo Verde is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Nevada's top teams: Coronado, who was ranked ninth at the time (Palo Verde was ranked first). The Panthers never let the Cougars get on the board and left with a 5-0 victory on Monday. Give the Panthers' pitching crew some credit: that's the team's third straight shutout.
Ava Koenig
| 03/27/25 @ Faith Lutheran | 3 |
| 03/31/25 @ Shadow Ridge | 4 |
| 03/06/25 vs Rancho | 5 |
| 04/03/25 vs Southeast Career Tech | 5 |
| 03/25/25 @ Green Valley | 7 |
Not much got past Ava Koenig, who gave up just three hits and racked up 14 Ks to keep Coronado off the board. Those 14 strikeouts set a new season-high mark for Koenig.
On the hitting side, Taylor Johns was incredible, getting on base in three of her four plate appearances with one home run and two RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Haley Kearnes, who scored a run while going 2-for-4.
Shadow Ridge's found some homefield redemption this week after a overtime loss to Centennial on Thursday. The Mustangs came out on top against Liberty by a score of 4-3 (the very same score they lost by in their prior game). For those keeping track at home, that's the closest win the Mustangs have posted against the Patriots since April 22, 2022.
Aleana Aionaaka and Madison Foster did most of the damage at the plate: Aionaaka went 2-for-3 with one triple and one RBI, while Foster went 2-for-3 with one triple and one RBI.
Palo Verde pushed their record up to 13-0 with the victory, which was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season. Those home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.3 runs on average over those games. As for Shadow Ridge, their victory bumped their record up to 10-5.
Shadow Ridge's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Palo Verde has been making plenty of contact this season, having averaged 11.5 hits per game. It's a different story for Shadow Ridge, though, as they've been averaging 8.7 hits. Given Palo Verde's sizable advantage in that area, the Mustangs will need to find a way to close that gap.
Palo Verde skirted past Shadow Ridge 11-9 in their previous meeting two weeks ago. Do the Panthers have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Mustangs turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
