The Newark Memorial Cougars will look to take advantage of their home field for the first time this season as they take on the Castro Valley Trojans at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Castro Valley took a loss in their last game and will be looking to turn the tables on Newark Memorial, who comes in off a win.
Newark Memorial will bounce into Wednesday's match after beating Arroyo, who they had gone 1-8 against in their nine prior meetings. Newark Memorial came out on top against Arroyo by a score of 10-6 on Tuesday.
Connor Murphy was a major factor no matter where he played. On the mound, he tossed five innings while giving up just two earned (and two unearned) runs off six hits. Murphy was also solid in the batter's box, scoring a run while going 1-for-4.
In other batting news, Newark Memorial let Brian Covarrubias Jr and Julian Ibarra run wild. Covarrubias Jr scored two runs and stole a base while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances, while Ibarra scored two runs and stole a base while going 3-for-4. The dominant performance also gave Ibarra a new career-high in RBI (two). Malosi Gaoteote was another key player, going 1-for-5 with one triple, one run, and one RBI.
Newark Memorial was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .455. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Arroyo only posted a batting average of .321.
Meanwhile, Castro Valley came up short against Salinas on Saturday and fell 7-3. The loss was the Trojans' first of the season.
Owen Seidel was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he struck out eight batters over 4.2 innings while giving up three earned runs off five hits.
At the plate, Castro Valley saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Ryan Thanos, who went 1-for-2 with one RBI.
Newark Memorial's win ended a four-game drought on the road dating back to last season and puts them at 1-1. Even worse, they were so close so many times: the losses came by an average of only 4.5 runs. As for Castro Valley, their defeat was their first of the season and makes their record 2-1.
Newark Memorial suffered a grim 11-1 defeat to Castro Valley when the teams last played back in March of 2024. Will Newark Memorial have more luck at home instead of on the road? Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other baseball content.
