The Santa Cruz Valley Dust Devils will head out on the road to square off against the Horizon Honors Eagles at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams are coming into the matchup red-hot, with Santa Cruz Valley sitting on three straight victories and Horizon Honors on four.
Santa Cruz Valley stacked a ninth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Tuesday. They were the clear victor by a 16-1 margin over Chandler Prep.
Emilee Brown was a standout: she scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-3. Another player making a difference was LaRya Bowen, who scored three runs and stole two bases while going 1-for-1.
Meanwhile, even though Benson scored an imposing ten runs on Wednesday, Horizon Honors still came out on top. Horizon Honors came out on top in a nail-biter against Benson and snuck past 11-10.
Audriana Anglada spent all seven innings played on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered six earned (and four unearned) runs on nine hits and racked up 13 Ks. She has been consistent recently: she hasn't pitched less than six innings in three consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, Alexa Villaverde was incredible, getting on base in all four of her plate appearances with a home run, three runs, and three RBI. Danica Guttierrez was another key contributor, scoring a run while going 3-for-3.
Santa Cruz Valley is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a nice bump to their 12-5 record this season. As for Horizon Honors, their win bumped their record up to 18-2.
Thursday's game will be a test for both team's pitchers. Santa Cruz Valley hasn't had any issues making contact this season, having earned a batting average of .405. However, it's not like Horizon Honors struggles in that department as they've averaged .515. With both teams so capable at the plate, fans should be ready for an impressive hitting performance.
Santa Cruz Valley might still be hurting after the 11-1 loss they got from Horizon Honors in their previous meeting back in March. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Anglada, who struck out six batters over six innings while giving up just one earned run off one hit. Now that Santa Cruz Valley 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
