The Desert Vista Thunder will face off against the Cibola Raiders at 3:45 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average, (Desert Vista: 3, Cibola: 3.8) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Desert Vista's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Monday. They walked away with a 3-0 win over Chandler.
Brock MacDonald tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run while striking out eight over six innings pitched. What's more, he gave up only zero earned runs, the fewest he's had since back in March of 2024.
On the hitting side, Desert Vista's victory was truly a team effort as two different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Noah Gutierrez, who scored a run and stole Two bases. while going 1-for-3. That's the most stolen bases Gutierrez has posted since back in April of 2024. Anthony Renda also deserves some recognition as he snagged his first stolen base of the season.
Meanwhile, everything went Cibola's way against Boulder Creek on Tuesday as Cibola made off with a 7-1 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Raiders.
Rodrigo Orozco Araiza was a major factor while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he tossed six innings while giving up just one earned run off five hits. Orozco Araiza was also solid in the batter's box, going 3-for-4 with one double and one RBI.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Jordan Schofield, who scored a run while going 2-for-4. Aidan Robles was another key player, scoring two runs and stealing Two bases. while going 1-for-3.
Cibola always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .576. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Boulder Creek only posted an OBP of .259.
Cibola pushed their record up to 3-1 with the victory, which was their ninth straight at home dating back to last season. The wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 8.2 runs over those games. As for Desert Vista, their win bumped their record up to 4-1.
Desert Vista beat Cibola 4-1 in their previous meeting back in February of 2024. Will Desert Vista repeat their success, or does Cibola have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
