The North Hills Indians will challenge the New Castle Hurricanes at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
North Hills took a loss when they played away from home on Friday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Monday. They never let Penn Hills get on the board and left with a 15-0 win. North Hills might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won four games by six runs or more this season.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask New Castle). They blew past Penn Hills 24-0 on Wednesday. The team's explosion at the plate also rewarded the Hurricanes with their most commanding win of the season.
Olivia Hood made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, she tossed one inning while giving up no earned runs or hits. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't given up more than two walks in five consecutive appearances. She was even better at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two triples, three runs, and three RBI. Those two triples gave her a new career-high.
In other batting news, Keara Mangieri was incredible, going 3-for-4 with one home run, six RBI, and three runs. Those six RBI gave her a new career-high. Angie Gallo was another key player, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 2-for-3.
New Castle was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .655. They are 4-1 when they post a batting average of .375 or better.
North Hills has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 5-3 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 12.0 runs over those games. As for New Castle, their win ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 5-6.
Everything went North Hills' way against New Castle in their previous meeting two weeks ago, as North Hills made off with a 10-4 victory. Do the Indians have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Hurricanes turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
