No, that was not the Gashouse Gorillas lined up opposite Cheyenne Mountain on Wednesday.

That was 4A’s No. 4-ranked Palmer Ridge hitting the ball over the yard in a 25-2 victory against the Red-Tailed Hawks at Cheyenne Mountain High School.

“Cheyenne Mountain is a great team and getting a win like this is important,” Corinna Arellano said. “Getting a win like this going into regionals and state is a great feeling. This was truly an all-around win.”

Palmer Ridge (17-3-1) finished the game with 23 hits including four homers to give the Bears their 25 runs and this marks the second time this season Palmer Ridge scored 20 or more runs. The Bears last eclipsed 25 runs on Aug. 30, 2021, and Sept. 1, 2021, in back-to-back games when they scored 27.

Players and coaches expected this contest to be another tight matchup as the Bears and Red-Tailed Hawks previous three games were decided by two runs or less.

When the Red-Tailed Hawks (14-6) and Bears played on Sept. 23, the game went into extra innings to determine a winner. Kayleigh Garcia broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth to give the Bears the victory.

In this contest, Garcia finished with 3 runs, 3 hits, 5 RBI and another home run, her 11th of the season. Even with that monster stat line from this week’s Peak Performer, it still wasn’t the best performance on her team.

Arellano went 5-for-5 with 6 RBI, 3 runs and added a home run in the first inning to give the Bears an 11-0 lead after the first.

“In the first game against them we pressed a little bit, we felt like we needed to win in a way that we hit at the right time,” Arellano said. “This time we played loose and we used everyone on our team to get this win. This shows who Palmer Ridge softball really is.”

Pam Boyarko, who hit her third home run of the year, said she believed the Red-Tailed Hawks lost the element of surprise.

In their previous meeting, Boyarko said the Bears hadn’t seen a pitcher this season with the speed of Cheyenne Mountain’s pitchers.

The Bears managed six hits in their extra-innings matchup with the Red-Tailed Hawks. Palmer Ridge had that before its third out.

“We already knew what to expect this game,” Boyarko said. “What I think started the run was in the first inning when Kayleigh got a single. That riled us up. That started the game of hitting for us. After they pulled their pitcher, we realized we knew how to hit the ball and we never stopped.”

While the Bears didn’t require spectacular defense in the game, they managed a pair of heads-up plays to end the contest.

Sofia Romero lasered a ball from right field to third base to force the second out of the inning and catcher Savanah Martinez made a savvy play at the plate to finish the game.

“We’ve been working on defense all year and our main focus has been executing plays like that,” Romero said. “The goal is to make the routine plays and the excellent plays will come. That’s what happened in this game.”