Baseball Game Preview: Mesa Ridge Grizzlies vs. Canon City Tigers

Mesa Ridge is 2-8 against Canon City since May of 2018 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Grizzlies are taking a road trip to square off against the Tigers at 4:00 p.m. Mesa Ridge will aim to continue their three-game streak of scoring more runs each match than the last.

Last Thursday, Mesa Ridge got the win against Palmer by a conclusive 15-2. With that win, the Grizzlies brought their scoring average up to 6.8 runs per game.

Zander Iwanski was a major factor no matter where he played. On the mound, he tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in strikeouts (four). He was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing two bases.

Brandon Bittner

Stolen Base

03/18/25 vs Colorado Springs Christian	3
04/10/25 vs Palmer	2
04/07/25 vs Pueblo South	2
04/01/25 @ Palmer Ridge	2

In other batting news, Mesa Ridge got a massive performance out of Brandon Bittner, who scored three runs and stole two bases while going 3-for-4. Bittner has become a key player for the Grizzlies: the team is 3-1 when he posts at least two stolen bases, but 2-7 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Bryce Riehl, who scored three runs and stole a base while going 2-for-3.

Mesa Ridge always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .581. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Palmer only posted an OBP of .318.

Fans were treated to a battle of the Tigers on Saturday. Canon City blew past Summit 13-3. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest victory Canon City has posted against Summit since March 9, 2019.

Mesa Ridge has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 5-8 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 10.6 runs over those games. As for Canon City, the victory got them back to even at 6-6.

Mesa Ridge took their win against Canon City in their previous meeting back in April of 2024 by a conclusive 15-2 score. Will the Grizzlies repeat their success, or do the Tigers have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.