The Palm Desert Aztecs will head out on the road to take on the Shadow Hills Knights at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Palm Desert's pitching crew has only allowed 4.1 runs per game this season, so Shadow Hills' hitters will have their work cut out for them.
Palm Desert can't be too worried about heading out to take on Shadow Hills: they just beat Rancho Mirage at home, who had been dominant on their own field up to that point. Palm Desert skirted past Rancho Mirage 2-1. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Palm Desert.
Zach Gibbs spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on three hits. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than two walks in five consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, Palm Desert's win was truly a team effort as four different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Stevie Hutchinson, who went 3-for-4 with a stolen base and an RBI.
Meanwhile, Monday just wasn't the day for Shadow Hills' offense. They took a 4-0 hit to the loss column at the hands of Xavier Prep on Monday. The match marked the first time this season in which Shadow Hills was not able to get on the board.
Palm Desert is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 12-10 record this season. As for Shadow Hills, their defeat dropped their record down to 7-9.
Palm Desert couldn't quite finish off Shadow Hills when the teams last played back in March and fell 4-2. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Shadow Hills' Julian Herrera, who didn't allow a single earned run while striking out 11 over six innings pitched. Now that Palm Desert knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
