The San Luis Sidewinders will head out to take on the Chaparral Firebirds at 3:45 p.m. on Friday. San Luis' pitching crew has only allowed four runs per game this season, so Chaparral's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
San Luis is headed into the match having just suffered their closest defeat since March 28, 2024 on Thursday. They fell just short of Williams Field by a score of 6-4. The Sidewinders have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Zaid Cardenas
| 03/06/25 vs Williams Field | 3 |
| 02/26/25 vs Imperial | 2 |
| 04/20/24 vs Hamilton | 2 |
| 04/11/24 @ Gila Ridge | 2 |
| 03/20/24 @ Yuma | 2 |
Zaid Cardenas was huge while hitting and pitching even without the win. On the mound, he pitched four innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off four hits. That's the fewest earned runs he has allowed since back in March of 2024. He was also big at the plate, scoring a run while going 3-for-4. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in RBI (three).
Cardenas wasn't the only one making solid contact as six players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Arnold Jimenez, who went 1-for-3 with one stolen base.
Meanwhile, while Chaparral put up some runs on Thursday, the same can't be said for Mountain Pointe. Chaparral skirted past Mountain Pointe 1-0. The one-run effort marked the Firebirds' lowest-scoring game of the season, but in the end it didn't matter.
Chaparral also got a great performance from Grafton Marshall-Inman as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits while striking out six over five innings pitched.
At the plate, Gavin Mesa was excellent, scoring a run while going 3-for-3. Tanner Anderson also deserves some recognition as he brought in his first RBI of the season.
The win made it two in a row for Chaparral and bumps their season record up to 4-2. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.5 runs on average over those games. As for San Luis, they now have a losing record of 3-4.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. San Luis has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 6.9 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Chaparral struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.3 strikeouts. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one. Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other baseball content.
