The Maple Mountain Eagles will square off against the Cedar Valley Aviators at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Maple Mountain has four straight wins, Cedar Valley has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
Maple Mountain is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Utah's top teams: Springville, who was ranked 11th at the time (Maple Mountain was ranked 20th). The Eagles came out on top against the Red Devils by a score of 7-3 on Tuesday.
Gracie Jensen spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered three earned runs on six hits. She has been consistent recently: she hasn't given up more than two walks in three consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Izzie Groneman, who went 2-for-3 with one home run and five RBI. That's the most RBI she has posted since back in March of 2025. The team also got some help courtesy of McClain Carter, who went 1-for-2 with two runs.
Maple Mountain hit smart and finished the game with only two strikeouts. The team has now struck out at least two batters in four consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, Cedar Valley came up short against Westlake on Tuesday and fell 9-6.
Cedar Valley saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Centry Lundberg, who went 1-for-4 with one stolen base and one run.
Maple Mountain's victory bumped their record up to 11-2. As for Cedar Valley, their defeat dropped their record down to 9-8.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Thursday. Maple Mountain hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 1 home runs per game. However, it's not like Cedar Valley struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.5 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Maple Mountain beat Cedar Valley 10-5 when the teams last played back in May of 2025. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Eagles since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
