Baseball Game Preview: Del Norte Nighthawks vs. St. Augustine Saints

The Del Norte Nighthawks will square off against the St. Augustine Saints at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Del Norte's tournament run continued when they took on San Marcos on Wednesday. The Nighthawks took a 9-6 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Knights. The Nighthawks have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Grey Gusich made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and went 2-for-4 with one home run. The team also got some help courtesy of Emmet Lucey, who scored a run while going 1-for-1.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask St. Augustine). They put the hurt on Poway with a sharp 12-6 win on Wednesday. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Saints.

Declan Higgins and Jonny Haskett dominated on the mound. Higgins pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits, while Haskett pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits. Higgins has been consistent : he hasn't given up a single earned run in five consecutive appearances.

At the plate, St. Augustine let Nathan Balkenbush and Anthony Tompkins run wild. Balkenbush went 2-for-4 with one home run, two runs, and two RBI, while Tompkins went 2-for-4 with one home run, two RBI, and one double. Balkenbush has become a key player for St. Augustine: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 4-5 otherwise. Raphael Dunne also deserves some recognition as he hit his first triple of the season.

St. Augustine was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .424. The last time their batting average was this high was back in April of 2024.

St. Augustine's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 7-5. The road wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.3 runs on average over those games. As for Del Norte, their defeat dropped their record down to 4-6.