Baseball Preview: La Junta Tigers vs. Pueblo Centennial Bulldogs
The La Junta Tigers have the luxury of staying home for another game and will welcome the Pueblo Centennial Bulldogs at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. La Junta is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 6.9 runs per game this season.
In what's become a running theme this season, La Junta gave their fans yet another huge win on Saturday. They put the hurt on Salida with a sharp 9-3 victory. That's two games straight that La Junta has won by exactly six runs.
Tyler Malden made a splash no matter where he played. He pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. Malden was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing a base while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Tony Rodriquez, who scored three runs and stole two bases while going 3-for-4. Another player making a difference was Eli Stokes, who went 1-for-3 with a stolen base, two RBI, and a double.
Pueblo Centennial lost 18-5 to Pueblo East on Tuesday. Pueblo Centennial has struggled against Pueblo East recently, as their matchup on Tuesday was their eighth consecutive lost matchup.
Pueblo Centennial saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Brayden Villegas, who went 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
The win got La Junta back to even at 9-9. As for Pueblo Centennial, their loss dropped their record down to 4-13.
Everything went La Junta's way against Pueblo Centennial when the teams last played back in March of 2023 as La Junta made off with a 17-9 victory. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Pueblo Centennial's Daulton Meyers, who didn't allow a single hit, only two earned runs while striking out eight over 5.1 innings pitched. Now that he won't be playing on Thursday, will it be that much easier for La Junta to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
