The Huntington Red Devils will head out on the road to square off against the Diboll Lumberjacks at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Huntington will be looking to extend their current four-game winning streak.
Diboll's hitters are going to have their work cut out for them on Friday: Huntington hadn't allowed a single run the last four times they've hit the field. The Red Devils never let Pollok Central get on the board and left with a 4-0 win on Monday. Give some credit to the fans of both teams: the last four times they've met, the home team has come away the winner.
Huntington's victory was truly a team effort as two different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Natalie Mullins, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Diboll). They blew past Newton 20-1 on Tuesday. The Lumberjacks have beaten the Eagles the last nine times they've met, but they better watch out: this was the closest the Eagles has come to flipping the script.
Brooklyn Hernandez made a splash while hitting and pitching. On the mound, she struck out six batters over three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. She has been consistent for a while: she hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in 11 consecutive appearances. She was also big at the plate, scoring two runs while going 1-for-3. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in RBI (two).
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on De'Mya Smith, who got on base in all four of her plate appearances with one home run, four runs, and three RBI. Those four runs gave her a new career-high. Lorena Castillo was another key player, scoring three runs and stealing two bases while getting on base in three of her four plate appearances.
Diboll was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .467. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their batting average total in four consecutive matches.
Huntington pushed their record up to 11-2 with the win, which was their fourth straight at home. Those home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.3 runs on average over those games. As for Diboll, they picked up their first road win, bumping their record up to 8-9.
Huntington took their victory against Diboll in their previous matchup two weeks ago by a conclusive 7-0 score. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Red Devils since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
