Baseball Game Preview: Palma Chieftains vs. Carmel Padres

For the second straight game, Palma will face off against Carmel. The Chieftains will venture away from home to take on the Padres at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Palma's pitching crew has only allowed three runs per game this season, so Carmel's hitters will have their work cut out for them.

Palma is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 16 runs on Tuesday, they were much more limited against Carmel on Thursday. They came up short against the Padres, falling 8-1. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest loss the Chieftains have suffered against the Padres since March 27, 2023.

For Carmel's part, Matt Maxon made a splash while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, striking out ten batters over seven innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits (and not a single walk). Maxon has become a key player for Carmel: the team is undefeated when he allows at most two earned runs, but 5-6 otherwise. Maxon was also big at the plate, going 2-for-4 with one home run and three runs.

In other batting news, Sean Carr was excellent, going 1-for-4 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one run. Another player making a difference was John Beretti, who went 1-for-3 with three RBI, one stolen base, and one run.

Carmel's record now sits at 13-6. As for Palma, their defeat ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 15-5.

Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Saturday. Palma hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.6 home runs per game. However, it's not like Carmel struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.5 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down. Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more baseball content.