Baseball Game Preview: St. Joseph Spartans vs. Rochester Rams

St. Joseph is on a five-game streak of home losses dating back to last season, and Rochester a five-game streak of away losses also dating back to last season. However, someone's due for a change in luck on Tuesday. The St. Joseph Spartans will be playing at home against the Rochester Rams at 4:00 p.m. St. Joseph will be strutting in after a victory while Rochester will be coming in after a defeat.

St. Joseph is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Summit Academy a 17-0 shutout on Monday. The win continues a trend for the Spartans in their matchups with the Knights: they've now won seven in a row.

Gabe Maltese made a big impact while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, striking out six batters over three innings while giving up no earned runs or hits (and only one walk). Maltese was also stellar in the batter's box, getting on base in all four of his plate appearances with four runs, two stolen bases, and two doubles. He also put up an RBI, which was his first of the season.

In other batting news, Luca Schiano Di Cola was a standout: he got on base in all three of his plate appearances with two runs, one stolen base, and one RBI. Another player making a difference was Peter Stickney, who went 1-for-2 with three RBI, two runs, and one stolen base.

St. Joseph always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .700. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.

Meanwhile, Rochester fought the good fight in their extra-innings match against Winchester Thurston on Tuesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of Winchester Thurston by a score of 7-6.

Rochester's loss dropped their record down to 2-5. As for St. Joseph, their victory was their first in the conference, bumping their conference record up to 1-6 and their overall record up to 2-8.