Baseball Preview: El Capitan Gauchos vs. Merced Bears
El Capitan is 9-1 against Merced since May of 2018, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Tuesday. The El Capitan Gauchos will be playing at home against the Merced Bears at 4:00 p.m. El Capitan's pitching crew has only allowed four runs per game this season, so Merced's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
Last Thursday, El Capitan never let their opponents score. They were the clear victor by a 7-0 margin over Central Valley.
Not much got past Matthew McQuillen, who gave up just two hits and racked up seven Ks to keep Central Valley off the board. McQuillen has been consistent recently: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in six consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Braylen Centeno, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-2. The team also got some help courtesy of Juan Munoz, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-4.
Meanwhile, Merced suffered a tough 11-5 defeat at the hands of Hughson on Friday. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Merced in their matchups with Hughson: they've now lost three in a row.
Cooper Frost made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and scored three runs and stole two bases while going 1-for-3. Julian Gomez was another key contributor, going 2-for-3 with a stolen base and an RBI.
El Capitan's victory bumped their record up to 10-11. As for Merced, their defeat dropped their record down to 11-8.
Everything went El Capitan's way against Merced when the teams last played back in April of 2023 as El Capitan made off with a 9-0 win. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Merced's Tony Saldivar, who didn't allow a single earned run over five innings pitched. Now that he won't be playing on Tuesday, will it be that much easier for El Capitan to walk away with another win? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
