The Rio Rico Hawks will challenge the Snowflake Lobos at 9:00 a.m. on Friday. Rio Rico is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 7.2 runs per game this season.
Fans were treated to a battle of the Hawks on Thursday. Rio Rico blew past Buckeye 13-1. Rio Rico not only won on Thursday, but they posted their biggest win since March 17th.
Jesus Rodriguez made a splash while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching five innings while giving up just one earned run off five hits. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in strikeouts (three). He was also big at the plate, scoring a run while going 3-for-4.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Rudy Garavito, who went 2-for-3 with one home run, four RBI, and two runs. That's the most runs he has posted since back in March. Another player making a difference was Jay Teso, who scored three runs while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances.
Rio Rico always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .541. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Buckeye only posted an OBP of .375.
Meanwhile, Snowflake has relied on a stalwart pitchers averaging 3.92 runs allowed per game, but that average took a hit on Thursday. They came up short against Estrella Foothills, falling 12-1. The game marked the Lobos' lowest-scoring matchup so far this season.
Snowflake saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Kenyan Bryant, who went 1-for-2 with one double and one RBI.
Rio Rico now has a winning record of 8-7. As for Snowflake, their loss dropped their record down to 10-3.
Rio Rico couldn't quite get it done against Snowflake in their previous meeting back in March of 2017 as they fell 10-7. Can the Hawks avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
