The Mica Mountain Thunderbolts will take on the Arcadia Titans at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Mica Mountain will roll into the contest after a wild two-game stretch: they didn't score any runs on Tuesday, then bounced right back against Sahuaro on Wednesday. The Thunderbolts were the clear victors by a 14-4 margin over the Cougars. Considering the Thunderbolts have won seven matchups by more than six runs this season, Wednesday's blowout was nothing new.
Maddux Rocha
| 04/23/25 @ Sahuaro | 4 |
| 03/13/25 vs Flagstaff | 0 |
| 03/07/25 vs Mountain View | 8 |
Maddux Rocha looked comfortable as he pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. What's more, he posted four strikeouts, the most he's had since back in March.
At the plate, Mica Mountain got a big performance out of Elijah Higuera, who went 2-for-4 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one run. Raydon Rocha was another key player, going 2-for-4 with three RBI and one run.
Mica Mountain was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .500. They are 5-1 when they post a batting average of .375 or better.
Meanwhile, Arcadia won against Marcos de Niza on Monday with nine runs and they decided to stick to that run total again on Wednesday. The Titans never let the Padres get on the board and left with a 9-0 win. The victory continues a trend for the Titans in their matchups with the Padres: they've now won four in a row.
Not much got past Cael Donahue, who gave up just four hits and racked up eight Ks to keep Marcos de Niza off the board. Donahue also tossed no walks, which is notable because Arcadia is 2-1 when he allows at most one walk, but 4-15 otherwise.
On the hitting side, Brody Panzer was incredible, going 3-for-4 with one triple, two RBI, and one run. Another player making a difference was Grant Erickson, who got on base in three of his five plate appearances with two stolen bases, one run, and one double.
Mica Mountain pushed their record up to 11-11-1 with the win, which was their third straight on the road. The road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.7 runs on average over those games. As for Arcadia, their win bumped their record up to 6-16.
