The Soquel Knights will face off against the Aptos Mariners at 4:00 p.m. on Monday. Soquel is coming into the contest hot, having won their last 12 games.
On Friday, Soquel beat Scotts Valley 4-1.
Soquel got a great performance from Luke Shoemaker as he tossed five innings while giving up just one earned run off five hits.
On the hitting side, Soquel's win was truly a team effort as seven different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Jake Escalante, who went 1-for-4 with one triple, one stolen base, and one run. That triple was Escalante's first of the season. Cash Moran was another, going 2-for-4 with two stolen bases and one run.
Silver Creek typically has all the answers at home, but on Saturday Aptos proved too difficult a challenge. They blew past the Raiders 15-4. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Mariners.
Damien Espinoza was incredible, going 4-for-5 with two runs, one stolen base, and two RBI. Those four hits gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Alec Mendoza, who went 2-for-5 with two stolen bases, two runs, and one RBI.
Aptos was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .400. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Silver Creek only posted a batting average of .250.
Soquel's victory was their 12th straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 22-1. The road wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.0 runs over those games. As for Aptos, their victory bumped their record up to 10-13.
Soquel beat Aptos 7-3 in their previous meeting two weeks ago. Do the Knights have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Mariners turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
