Baseball Game Preview: St. Pius X Sartans vs. Valencia Jaguars

St. Pius X has gone 9-1 against Valencia recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Sartans will be playing at home against the Jaguars at 3:30 p.m. Neither of those teams managed to put together many runs in their previous contests, so the offenses might be a little more motivated than usual.

St. Pius X is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of New Mexico's top teams: Grants, who was ranked 18th at the time (St. Pius X was ranked 21st). The Sartans skirted past the Pirates 2-1. The victory was familiar territory for the Sartans, who have now won three contests in a row.

Hunter Jiron

Earned Runs

04/12/25 @ Rio Grande	4
03/25/25 @ Los Lunas	2
03/15/25 vs Volcano Vista	2
03/29/25 vs Albuquerque Academy	1

St. Pius X got a great performance from Hunter Jiron as he didn't allow a single earned run over six innings pitched. Jiron also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because the Sartans are 5-2 when he allows at most two earned runs, but 8-9 otherwise.

At the plate, Jacob Madrid was excellent, going 1-for-3 with one home run and two RBI. He is becoming a predictor of St. Pius X's success: when he posts at least one home run the team is undefeated (and 9-11 when he doesn't).

Meanwhile, Valencia came up short against Grants on Friday and fell 5-2. The Jaguars have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Valencia saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Pryce Henry, who went 1-for-3 with two stolen bases and one run.

St. Pius X pushed their record up to 13-11 with the win, which was their third straight on the road. Those road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.7 runs on average over those games. As for Valencia, their loss dropped their record down to 9-13.

St. Pius X took their win against Valencia in their previous meeting two weeks ago by a conclusive 12-1 score. Do the Sartans have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Jaguars turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.