Baseball Preview: Santa Rosa Lions vs. Tularosa Wildcats
Santa Rosa has enjoyed a three-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They will take on the Tularosa Wildcats at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Santa Rosa scored the most runs they've had all season to find success on Saturday. They were the clear victor by a 31-21 margin over Melrose. Both teams can probably skip cardio this week after making that many trips around the bases.
Landyn Zamora was a standout: he scored five runs and stole a base while getting on base in five of his six plate appearances. He has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last seven times he's played. Another player making a difference was Nicolas Chavez, who scored three runs and stole two bases while getting on base in four of his seven plate appearances.
Meanwhile, Tularosa gave up the first runs last Saturday, but they didn't let that get them down. Everything went their way against Gateway Christian as Tularosa made off with a 13-7 victory. The win was just what Tularosa needed coming off of a 12-5 defeat in their prior contest.
Jacoby Apachito made a splash no matter where he played. On the mound, he pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off four hits (he also didn't allow any walks). Apachito was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing three bases while going 1-for-3.
In other batting news, Davin Mendez was excellent, scoring two runs and stealing a base while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances. Jalen Randall was another key contributor, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 1-for-4.
Santa Rosa's victory was their fifth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 9-1. Those victories were due in large part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 13.4 runs per game. As for Tularosa, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 5-5 record this season.
Tularosa's pitching crew has a tough task ahead of them: Santa Rosa hasn't had any issues making contact this season, having earned a batting average of .313. It's a different story for Tularosa, though, as they've only averaged .247. Will they be able to contain Santa Rosa's hitters?
Santa Rosa skirted past Tularosa 4-2 when the teams last played back in April of 2023. The rematch might be a little tougher for Santa Rosa since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
