Baseball Preview: St. Joseph Academy Crusaders vs. Rock Academy Warriors
The St. Joseph Academy Crusaders will be playing at home against the Rock Academy Warriors at 3:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
St. Joseph Academy took a loss when they played away from home on Tuesday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Wednesday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Chula Vista Learning Community Charter and snuck past 13-12.
Blaise McMahon was a major factor while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching five innings while giving up just one earned (and two unearned) runs off two hits. McMahon was also big at the plate, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 2-for-4.
In other batting news, Isaac Larkin was a standout: he scored three runs and stole three bases while going 2-for-4. Khalil Cammayo was another key contributor, scoring two runs and stealing two bases while going 2-for-5.
Meanwhile, Rock Academy can now show off eight landslide victories after their most recent match on Thursday. They never let High Tech SD onto the board and left with an 8-0 win. Winning may never get old, but Rock Academy sure is getting used to it with their fourth in a row.
Like St. Joseph Academy, Rock Academy also got a great game from a two-way player: Jack Villanueva. He didn't allow a single earned run while striking out 12 over seven innings pitched. Villanueva has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than two walks in eight consecutive pitching appearances. Villanueva was also solid in the batter's box, scoring two runs and stealing three bases while going 2-for-3.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Tyler Alvarez, who scored two runs and stole three bases while going 2-for-2. Another player making a difference was Max Gimbel, who scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-3.
St. Joseph Academy's victory bumped their record up to 4-12. As for Rock Academy, they have been performing well recently as they've won nine of their last 11 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 12-9 record this season.
The pitchers for both teams better look sharp on Friday as neither team is afraid to steal. St. Joseph Academy has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 4.6 stolen bases per game. However, it's not like Rock Academy struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.7. The only question left is which team can snag more.
St. Joseph Academy suffered a grim 12-4 defeat to Rock Academy in their previous meeting on Tuesday. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Rock Academy's Alec Endicott, who didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits over 4.2 innings pitched. Now that St. Joseph Academy 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
