The Santa Rosa Lions will challenge the Estancia Bears at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Santa Rosa is coming into the game hot, having won their last 13 games.
Santa Rosa's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Saturday. They blew past Pecos 10-0. The result was nothing new for the Lions, who have now won 14 contests by seven runs or more so far this season.
The result came thanks to Josiah Barela's shutout, as he gave up just a hit and racked up eight Ks.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Daniel Zamora, who went 2-for-3 with three runs, one stolen base, and one double. The team also got some help courtesy of Matias Garcia, who went 1-for-2 with two RBI, one run, and one double.
Raton hit Estancia with a six-run seventh inning on Friday, which goes a long way in explaining the final result. The Bears lost 11-5 to the Tigers. The Bears haven't had much luck with the Tigers recently, as the team has come up short the last three times they've met.
Joshua Villafuerte made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and went a perfect 3-for-3 with one stolen base, one run, and one double. Estancia is 2-1 when Villafuerte posts three or more hits, but 4-8 otherwise. Leon Maxwell-Preisen was another key player, going 3-for-4 with one double and one RBI.
Santa Rosa's victory was their 17th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 16-3. The team dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 11.7 runs. As for Estancia, their defeat dropped their record down to 6-9.
Everything went Santa Rosa's way against Estancia when the teams last played two weeks ago, as Santa Rosa made off with a 21-1 win. Will the Lions repeat their success, or do the Bears have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.