Baseball Game Preview: Mt. Diablo Red Devils vs. Miramonte Matadors

For the second straight game, Mt. Diablo will face off against Miramonte. The Red Devils will take on the Matadors at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. Mt. Diablo has given up an average of 13.6 runs per game this season, but Thursday's game will give them a chance to turn things around.

Tuesday just wasn't the day for Mt. Diablo's offense. They came up short against Miramonte on Tuesday, falling 16-0. The defeat continues a trend for the Red Devils in their meetings with the Matadors: they've now lost four in a row.

For Miramonte's part, Austin Bilello and George Gilbert made a splash no matter where they played. Throwing, Bilello struck out six batters over three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit (and only one walk). Meanwhile, Gilbert tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. Miramonte is 2-1 when Bilello allows two or fewer hits, but 2-9 otherwise. At the plate, Bilello scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-2, while Gilbert scored three runs and stole two bases while going 1-for-2. Those two runs gave Bilello a new career-high.

In other batting news, Preston Rguem and Casey Yung did most of the damage at the plate: Rguem scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-4, while Yung scored a run and stole three bases while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances. The dominant performance also gave Rguem a new career-high in RBI (two). Duncan Oliver also deserves some recognition as he got his first hit of the season.

Miramonte is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 4-10 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.0 run on average over those games. As for Mt. Diablo, their loss dropped their record down to 3-10.