Desert Ridge is 2-8 against Hamilton since April of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The Desert Ridge Jaguars will take on the Hamilton Huskies in a tournament on Thursday. One thing working in Desert Ridge's favor is that they have posted at least ten runs in their last four contests.
While Desert Ridge didn't have the best season last year (they finished 10-21), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past. They walked away with a 17-14 win over Marana on Wednesday.
Aleeya Barwick was a standout: she scored three runs and stole Two bases. while going 2-for-4. That's the most stolen bases she has posted since back in April of 2024. The team also got some help courtesy of Jacee Larson, who went 2-for-5 with three runs, one triple, and two RBI.
Barwick wasn't the only one working in the hit department: Desert Ridge kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 13 hits. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now got at least eight hits in 11 consecutive games dating back to last season.
Meanwhile, Hamilton faced Xavier College Prep in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Monday. Hamilton's pitcher stepped up to hand Xavier College Prep a 2-0 shutout. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Huskies.
The result came thanks to Liliana Russo's shutout, as she gave up just six hits and racked up six Ks. What's more, she gave up only zero earned runs, the fewest she's had since back in May of 2024.
On the hitting side, Hamilton saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Briley Pinks, who went 1-for-3 with one home run. That home run was Pinks' first of the season.
Hamilton pushed their record up to 6-3 with the victory, which was their third straight at home. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to strikeouts: they averaged an imposing seven strikeouts in those games compared to only four in the others. As for Desert Ridge, they are on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 6-2 record this season.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Thursday. Desert Ridge hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 1.5 home runs per game. However, it's not like Hamilton struggles in that department as they've been averaging 1 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Desert Ridge couldn't quite get it done against Hamilton when the teams last played back in February of 2024 as they fell 11-7. Can Desert Ridge avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
