Softball Preview: Mineral County Serpents vs. Tonopah Muckers
Mineral County and Tonopah are an even 5-5 against one another since April of 2017, but likely not for long. The Mineral County Serpents will stay at home for another game and welcome the Tonopah Muckers at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the pair will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Tuesday, Mineral County suffered a rough 23-11 defeat at the hands of Pyramid Lake. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Mineral County in their matchups with Pyramid Lake: they've now lost five in a row.
Jazmin Serrato was cooking despite her team's loss, getting on base in three of her four plate appearances with a home run, three runs, and three RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Amaya Reyes, who scored three runs and stole two bases while getting on base in all three of her plate appearances.
Meanwhile, Tonopah unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak in Saturday's second game. They fell 20-17 to Lone Pine. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game in Saturday's first game (16), Tonopah still had to take the loss.
Savanna Muns was huge while hitting and pitching even without the win. She struck out 11 batters over 4.2 innings while giving up four earned (and eight unearned) runs off seven hits. Muns was also solid in the batter's box, scoring a run and stealing two bases while getting on base in two of her five plate appearances. She is on a roll when it comes to stolen bases, as she's now stolen at least one in the last five games she's played.
In other batting news, Liberty Deck and Gabrielle Strozzi stepped up to the plate in a big way. Deck scored four runs and stole five bases while going 5-for-5, while Strozzi scored a run and stole five bases while getting on base in four of her five plate appearances. Taylor Thomas was another key contributor, scoring two runs and stealing three bases while getting on base in four of her five plate appearances.
Even though they lost, Tonopah didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with 15 strikeouts. That's the most strikeouts they've managed all season.
Mineral County's defeat dropped their record down to 2-10. As for Tonopah, their loss ended a three-game streak of away wins and brought them to 6-7.
The pitchers for both teams better look sharp on Tuesday as neither team is afraid to steal. Mineral County has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 3.2 stolen bases per game. However, it's not like Tonopah struggles in that department as they've been averaging 6.8. The only question left is which team can snag more.
Mineral County might still be hurting after the 21-6 defeat they got from Tonopah when the teams last played back in March. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Tonopah's Macie Strozzi, who scored four runs and stole three bases while getting on base in all four of her plate appearances. Now that Mineral County knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
