Artesia has gone a perfect 10-0 against Portales recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Bulldogs will face off against the Rams at 5:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Artesia has five straight wins, Portales has nine straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Artesia is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of New Mexico's top teams: Lovington, who was ranked 13th at the time (Artesia was ranked tenth). The Bulldogs put the hurt on the Wildcats with a sharp 7-1 victory on Tuesday. The result was nothing new for the Bulldogs, who have now won ten games by six runs or more so far this season.
Kayden Apodaca
| 04/29/25 vs Lovington | 7 |
| 04/25/25 vs Goddard | 11 |
| 04/17/25 @ Lovington | 5 |
| 04/15/25 @ Goddard | 8 |
| 04/12/25 @ Roswell | 6 |
Kayden Apodaca was a major factor no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and allowing only one hit while striking out seven over 5.2 innings pitched. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in five consecutive appearances. She was also stellar in the batter's box, going 2-for-4 with one home run, four RBI, and one double.
Apodaca wasn't the only one making solid contact as eight players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Katrin Marquez, who went 2-for-4 with two runs, one double, and one RBI.
Artesia 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 ten hits in four consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, Portales didn't have quite enough to beat Goddard on Tuesday and fell 9-7.
Artesia pushed their record up to 17-7 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.8 runs on average over those games. As for Portales, their loss dropped their record down to 9-14.
Artesia took their win against Portales when the teams last played last Tuesday by a conclusive 9-0 score. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Bulldogs since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
