The Joshua Owls will take on the Burleson Elks at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Burleson took a loss in their last match and will be looking to turn the tables on Joshua, who comes in off a win.
Joshua's pitching crew heads into the contest hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Tuesday. Everything went their way against Everman as Joshua made off with a 15-0 win. Considering the Owls have won six games by more than eight runs this season, Tuesday's blowout was nothing new.
Molly Young made a splash no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, tossing three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in strikeouts (three). She was also big at the plate, going a perfect 1-for-1 with one home run and three RBI.
In other batting news, Baylee Jones was incredible, going a perfect 2-for-2 with one home run, four RBI, and one stolen base. Another player making a difference was Leilanie Sam, who scored two runs while going 3-for-3.
Joshua always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .739. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
Meanwhile, Burleson fought the good fight in their extra-innings match against Centennial on Tuesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Spartans by a score of 5-4. The Elks haven't had much luck with the Spartans recently, as the team has come up short the last seven times they've met.
Ryan Hovland spent all 7.1 innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered five earned runs on ten hits and racked up nine Ks.
On the hitting side, Kaydan Dorman was cooking despite her team's loss, going 2-for-4 with one home run and two RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Daelyn Gonzales, who scored two runs while going 3-for-4.
Joshua is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests. That's provided a massive bump to their 9-9 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 13.2 runs over those games. Burleson's loss was their first in the district, dropping their district record down to 3-1 and their overall record down to 8-5.
Joshua skirted past Burleson 1-0 in their previous meeting back in April of 2024. Will Joshua repeat their success, or does Burleson has a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
