Baseball Game Preview: Cupertino Pioneers vs. Santa Clara Bruins

The Cupertino Pioneers will take on the Santa Clara Bruins at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

On Tuesday, Cupertino got the win against Saratoga by a conclusive 9-1. The Pioneers haven't had any issues with the Falcons recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive win against them.

Meanwhile, Santa Clara made easy work of Del Mar on Saturday and carried off a 13-2 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Bruins.

Charles Conley made a splash while hitting and pitching. He tossed five innings while giving up just two earned runs off two hits. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in strikeouts (three). He was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing two bases while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Andrew Traffas, who scored two runs and stole three bases while going 2-for-4. Those three stolen bases gave him a new career-high. Drew Diffenderfer was another key player, scoring two runs and stealing two bases.

Santa Clara always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .517. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Del Mar only posted an OBP of .200.

Cupertino pushed their record up to 6-5-1 with the win, which was their third straight on the road. Those victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 16.0 runs over those games. As for Santa Clara, their win bumped their record up to 8-2.

Cupertino might still be hurting after the 10-2 defeat they got from Santa Clara in their previous meeting back in April of 2022. Can Cupertino avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.