Baseball Preview: Hilmar Yellowjackets vs. Central Valley Hawks
The Hilmar Yellowjackets will be playing at home against the Central Valley Hawks at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Hilmar is strutting in with some hitting muscle, as they've averaged 8.4 runs per game this season.
In what's become a running theme this season, Hilmar gave their fans yet another huge win on Thursday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Riverbank a 13-0 shutout. That's two games straight that Hilmar has won by exactly 13 runs.
Ryan Couchman tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and only two hits while striking out 11 over five innings pitched. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than six strikeouts in six consecutive pitching appearances.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Dakota Maynard, who went 2-for-2 with two triples, three RBI, and a run. Another player making a difference was John Labno, who scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-2.
Meanwhile, Central Valley fell victim to Patterson and their airtight pitching crew on Thursday. They fell just short of the Tigers by a score of 1-0. Central Valley's loss continues an unfortunate trend for the team, making it three in a row.
Hilmar has been performing well recently as they've won seven of their last nine games, which provided a nice bump to their 12-7 record this season. As for Central Valley, their defeat dropped their record down to 10-13.
Hilmar couldn't quite finish off Central Valley when the teams last played back in March of 2023 and fell 4-2. Thankfully for Hilmar, Gage Mastropierro (who struck out six batters over four innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
