The Ironwood Ridge Nighthawks will face off against the Empire Ravens at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.
Ironwood Ridge fell victim to Salpointe Catholic and their airtight pitching crew on Wednesday. They came up short against the Lancers, falling 10-0. The Nighthawks have struggled against the Lancers recently, as the game was their eighth consecutive lost meeting.
Meanwhile, Empire put another one in the bag on Thursday to keep their perfect season alive. They never let Catalina get on the board and left with a 20-0 win. The Ravens might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 13 games by six runs or more this season.
Vanessa Grijalva made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, she pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. She has been consistent : she hasn't given up more than one earned run in five consecutive appearances. She was also solid in the batter's box, scoring a run while going 2-for-2. The dominant performance also gave her a new career-high in RBI (two).
In other batting news, Angelina Dehler and Eva Peace did most of the damage at the plate: Dehler went a perfect 2-for-2 with four RBI, two runs, and two doubles, while Peace scored two runs while getting on base in all four of her plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Mila Rios-Encinas, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with two doubles and two RBI.
Empire always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .944. That was just more of the same: they've now posted an OBP of .500 or higher in five consecutive contests.
Empire's victory was their 16th straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 18-0. The road wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 12.4 runs over those games. As for Ironwood Ridge, their loss dropped their record down to 10-6.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
