Baseball Game Preview: Harlandale Indians vs. Southwest Dragons

Harlandale hasn't had much luck against Southwest recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Harlandale Indians will square off against the Southwest Dragons at 1:00 p.m.

Harlandale is headed into Friday's match looking for a big change in momentum after dropping their eighth straight game on Tuesday. They might be feeling deja-vu: they lost 3-2 to McCollum, which was the same score (and result) they got the week prior.

Harlandale saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Gael Ponce, who went 1-for-2 with one RBI.

Meanwhile, Southwest had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 4.8 runs) and they went ahead and made it five on Tuesday. They walked away with a 4-1 win over the Brahmas.

Alex Rico spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on seven hits and racked up six Ks. That's the most strikeouts he has posted since back in May of 2024.

At the plate, Jovonny Amador and Romeo Castillo did most of the damage at the plate: Amador got on base in all three of his plate appearances with one stolen base and two RBI, while Castillo scored a run while going 2-for-2. The dominant performance also gave Castillo a new career-high in doubles (two). Another player making a difference was David Samudio, who scored two runs while going 1-for-3.

Southwest's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 7-2-1. Those victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 6.3 runs over those games. As for Harlandale, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-11.

Harlandale came out on top in a nail-biter against Southwest when the teams last played back in April of 2024, sneaking past 2-0. The rematch might be a little tougher for Harlandale since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.