The Desert Mountain Wolves will face off against the Campo Verde Coyotes at 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Desert Mountain is coming into the contest hot, having won their last 19 games.
Desert Mountain is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Arizona's top teams: Arizona College Prep, who was ranked ninth at the time (Desert Mountain was ranked first). The Wolves came out on top in a nail-biter against the Knights on Thursday, sneaking past 4-2.
Lilly 'Goose' Goodwin was a major factor no matter where she played. She struck out ten batters over seven innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off three hits (and not a single walk). She has been nothing but reliable on the mound: she hasn't given up more than two walks in 17 consecutive appearances. She was also big at the plate, going 2-for-3 with one double and one RBI.
In other batting news, Desert Mountain let McKinsey Beyer and Cyan De Luigi run wild. Beyer went 1-for-2 with two stolen bases, one run, and one RBI, while De Luigi went 2-for-3 with two RBI and one double. That's the most RBI De Luigi has posted since back in March. Another player making a difference was Avery Gehrke, who went 1-for-3 with one triple and one run.
Meanwhile, while Campo Verde put up some runs on Thursday, the same can't be said for Chaparral. The Coyotes put the hurt on the Firebirds with a sharp 10-0 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Coyotes.
Not much got past Addyson Armstrong, who gave up just three hits to keep Chaparral off the board.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Tess Lopez, who went 1-for-3 with two RBI and one run. The team also got some help courtesy of Brennan Reid, who got on base in three of her four plate appearances with one run.
Desert Mountain pushed their record up to 22-1-1 with the victory, which was their 20th straight at home dating back to last season. Those home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.3 runs on average over those games. As for Campo Verde, their victory bumped their record up to 10-15.
Campo Verde's hitters will have their work cut out for them on Tuesday. Desert Mountain has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 12.2 strikeouts per game. It's a different story for Campo Verde, though, as they've been averaging an even more impressive 3.6 strikeouts. Will Desert Mountain keep running through batters, or will the Coyotes buck the trend?
Desert Mountain beat Campo Verde 4-1 in their previous meeting back in March of 2024. Will the Wolves repeat their success, or do the Coyotes have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
