Baseball Game Preview: Tempe Buffaloes vs. Yuma Criminals

The Tempe Buffaloes will challenge the Yuma Criminals at 4:00 p.m. on Monday. Tempe has given up an average of 15.6 runs per game this season, but Monday's game will give them a chance to turn things around.

Tempe fell victim to Desert Sunrise and their airtight pitching crew on Thursday. They came up short against the Golden Hawks, falling 15-0. The Buffaloes have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Yuma). They never let Cortez get on the board and left with a 22-0 win on Tuesday. The Criminals might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 11 games by seven runs or more this season.

Eli Lujan was a major factor while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he tossed three innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. What's more, he posted three strikeouts, the most he's had over his last two matches. He was also big at the plate, getting on base in three of his four plate appearances with three stolen bases, two runs, and one RBI.

In other batting news, Yuma got a massive performance out of Andres Ortiz, who got on base in all four of his plate appearances with one home run, four runs, and four RBI. Those four runs gave Ortiz a new career-high. Alonzo Fierro was another key player, going 2-for-4 with five RBI, two runs, and one stolen base.

Yuma was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .692. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a batting average of .370 or higher in five consecutive contests.

Yuma pushed their record up to 17-5-1 with the victory, which was their 14th straight at home dating back to last season. The home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.6 runs on average over those games. As for Tempe, their loss dropped their record down to 3-11.