The Hopewell-Loudon Chieftains will challenge the Gibsonburg Golden Bears at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. Hopewell-Loudon will be strutting in after a victory while Gibsonburg will be coming in after a loss.
Hopewell-Loudon barely beat Danbury the last time the pair played, but that sure wasn't the case this time around. The Chieftains were the clear victors by a 14-5 margin over the Lakers on Wednesday. Considering the Chieftains have won nine matchups by more than five runs this season, Wednesday's blowout was nothing new.
Araceli Velasquez
| 04/23/25 @ Danbury | 7 |
| 04/09/25 @ New Riegel | 6 |
| 04/07/25 vs Lakota | 6 |
| 04/05/25 @ Margaretta | 6 |
| 04/04/25 vs Calvert | 6 |
Araceli Velasquez made a big impact while hitting and pitching. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and allowing only one hit while striking out seven over 4.1 innings pitched. Those seven strikeouts gave her a new career-high. She was also stellar in the batter's box, firing off two home runs and six RBI while going 2-for-5.
In other batting news, Sidney Brickner was incredible, getting on base in four of her six plate appearances with three runs, one stolen base, and two RBI. Maddie Holcomb was another key player, going 2-for-5 with four runs and one stolen base.
Meanwhile, after a string of six wins, Gibsonburg's good fortune finally ran out on Wednesday. They fell just short of Calvert by a score of 4-2. Having soared to a lofty 20 runs in the game before, the Golden Bears couldn't push the score so high this time.
Like Hopewell-Loudon, Gibsonburg also got a great game from a two-way player: Ava Amor. On the mound, she didn't allow a single earned run over four innings pitched. Amor has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't given up more than two walks in 12 consecutive appearances. She was also big at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two doubles and one RBI.
Amor wasn't the only one making solid contact as seven players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Emily Henderson, who went 1-for-3 with one stolen base and one run.
The win (which was Hopewell-Loudon's third in a row) raised their record to 10-5. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.3 runs on average over those games. As for Gibsonburg, their defeat was their first in the conference, dropping their conference record down to 8-1 and their overall record down to 8-5.
