Baseball Preview: Salinas Cowboys vs. Carmel Padres
The Salinas Cowboys will head out on the road to take on the Carmel Padres at 4:00 p.m. on Monday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average, (Salinas: 3.3, Carmel: 2.4) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Salinas is probably headed into the contest with a chip on their shoulder considering Hollister just ended the team's five-game winning streak on Thursday. They suffered a tough 13-4 defeat at the hands of the Haybalers.
Salinas saw eight different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Jake Yeater, who went 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI. Yeater has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two walks in three consecutive pitching appearances.
Meanwhile, Carmel put the finishing touches on their seventh blowout victory of the season on Saturday. They blew past Saratoga 11-1. Winning may never get old, but Carmel sure is getting used to it with their fifth in a row.
Hudson Rutherford looked comfortable as he pitched three innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits.
At the plate, Justin LeMaster and Matt Maxon did most of the damage at the plate: LeMaster scored three runs and stole three bases while getting on base in two of his three plate appearances, while Maxon scored two runs and stole two bases while going 2-for-3. Another player making a difference was JJ Sanchez, who scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-2.
Salinas' loss dropped their record down to 13-7. As for Carmel, they pushed their record up to 16-3 with that victory, which was their third straight on the road.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Monday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Salinas has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.3 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Carmel struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.1. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Salinas couldn't quite finish off Carmel when the teams last played back in March and fell 2-0. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Carmel's Zander Lunt, who didn't allow a single earned run and only one hit while striking out ten over seven innings pitched. Now that Salinas knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
