Centennial has enjoyed a five-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They will square off against the Palo Verde Panthers at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Both teams come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Centennial is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Nevada's top teams: Shadow Ridge, who was ranked third in their home state at the time (Centennial was ranked sixth). Centennial walked away with a 6-1 victory over Shadow Ridge on Monday.
Sloane Merrell spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered one run (which was unearned) on six hits.
On the hitting side, Campbell Cole was excellent, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 1-for-2. The team also got some help courtesy of Hailey Smith, who went 1-for-3 with two RBI and a double.
Meanwhile, Palo Verde had just enough and edged Liberty out 5-3 on Friday. The win made it back-to-back victories for Palo Verde.
Haley Kearnes made a big impact while hitting and pitching. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and only two hits over four innings pitched. Kearnes was also big at the plate, scoring a run while going 2-for-3.
In other batting news, Taylor Johns and Payton Liposky did most of the damage at the plate: Johns scored a run and stole a base while going 3-for-4, while Liposky scored a run while going 1-for-2. Another player making a difference was Alexis Kearnes, who scored a run while going 1-for-3.
Centennial pushed their record up to 18-9-1 with that win, which was their third straight at home. As for Palo Verde, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Wednesday. Centennial hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.6 home runs per game. However, it's not like Palo Verde struggles in that department as they've been averaging 1.2. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Centennial couldn't quite finish off Palo Verde in their previous meeting two weeks ago and fell 2-0. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Palo Verde's Bradi Odom, who didn't allow a single earned run while striking out nine over seven innings pitched. Now that Centennial knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
