The Pinnacle Pioneers will head out on the road to challenge the Queen Creek Bulldogs at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Pinnacle is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Arizona's top teams: Basha, who was ranked third in their home state at the time (Pinnacle was ranked fourth). Pinnacle blew past Basha 13-3. Winning may never get old, but Pinnacle sure is getting used to it with their third in a row.
Lilly Hamel spent all six innings played on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered three runs (all of which were unearned) on six hits. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't pitched less than five innings in four consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, Pinnacle got a massive performance out of Christina Meneses, who went 1-for-2 with a home run and four RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Torynn Slaughter, who scored two runs while getting on base in four of her five plate appearances.
Meanwhile, Queen Creek waltzed into their contest on Wednesday with ten straight wins... but they left with 11. Everything went their way against the Eagles as they made off with an 8-2 win. Eight seems to be a good number for Queen Creek as the team scooped up a victory with the same number of runs in their previous game.
Queen Creek also let their pitcher toss all seven innings and she was also dialed-in: Jenae Berry gave up just two earned runs on four hits and racked up 11 Ks.
On the hitting side, Corie Shull and Cecelia Marquez did most of the damage at the plate: Shull scored two runs while going 3-for-4, while Marquez scored two runs while going 2-for-3. Makenzi Padilla was another key contributor, going 1-for-2 with two RBI.
Pinnacle has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 14 of their last 15 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 25-4 record this season. As for Queen Creek, they pushed their record up to 24-4 with that win, which was their fifth straight at home.
Friday's game will be a test for both team's pitchers. Pinnacle hasn't had any issues making contact this season, having earned a batting average of .414. However, it's not like Queen Creek struggles in that department as they've averaged .379. With both teams so capable at the plate, fans should be ready for an impressive hitting performance.
Pinnacle came up short against Queen Creek in their previous meeting back in March, falling 5-1. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Berry, who struck out seven batters over seven innings while giving up just one earned run off six hits (and only one walk). Now that Pinnacle 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
