Softball Preview: San Manuel Miners vs. St. David Tigers
The San Manuel Miners will look to defend their home field on Thursday against the St. David Tigers at 3:45 p.m. Both teams come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
San Manuel is hoping to deliver their fans another blowout on Thursday, just like they did against Baboquivari (and have done all season long). San Manuel's pitcher stepped up to hand Baboquivari a 23-0 shutout on Monday.
Mariah Villalba made a splash while hitting and pitching. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and only one hit while striking out 12 over five innings pitched. Villalba was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring four runs and stealing two bases while getting on base in all five of her plate appearances.
In other batting news, Laila Ruiz and Julianna Garcia did most of the damage at the plate: Ruiz went 4-for-4 with two triples, three runs, and four RBI, while Garcia scored three runs and stole a base while going 4-for-5. Julianna Rodriguez was another key contributor, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 2-for-2.
Meanwhile, St. David entered their tilt with Valley Union with three consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with four. They came out on top against the Blue Devils by a score of 5-1 on Wednesday.
Paisley Gooding spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered one run (which was unearned) on five hits. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't pitched less than five innings in 11 consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, Anissa Jacquez was excellent, scoring two runs while going 3-for-3. The team also got some help courtesy of Camber Jacquez, who got on base in three of her four plate appearances with a stolen base and an RBI.
San Manuel has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 14 of their last 17 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 17-6-1 record this season. As for St. David, they pushed their record up to 14-2-1 with that victory, which was their fourth straight on the road.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Thursday. San Manuel hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.5 home runs per game. However, it's not like St. David struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.7. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
San Manuel might still be hurting after the 12-6 loss they got from St. David in their previous matchup last Wednesday. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Gooding, who struck out nine batters over seven innings while giving up just two earned (and four unearned) runs off four hits. Now that San Manuel knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
