Merritt Island won against Space Coast last Wednesday with 15 runs and they decided to stick to that run total again on Thursday. The Merritt Island Mustangs were the clear victor by a 15-4 margin over the Rockledge Raiders. For the Mustangs, this counts as revenge for the 5-1 win the Raiders walked away with the last time they faced one another back in March of 2024.
Grant Arnold was a major factor no matter where he played. He tossed 2.2 innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits. What's more, he gave up only zero walks, the fewest he's had since back in February. He was also solid in the batter's box, scoring two runs while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances.
Jayce Brandes
| 03/13/25 @ Rockledge | 3 |
| 02/26/25 @ Astronaut | 2 |
| 02/11/25 vs Heritage | 2 |
| 03/12/25 @ Space Coast | 1 |
| 03/04/25 vs Cocoa Beach | 1 |
In other batting news, Jayce Brandes was excellent, scoring three runs while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in runs. Mikey Lambert also deserves some recognition as he snagged his first stolen base of the season.
The victory made it two in a row for Merritt Island and bumps their season record up to 9-4. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to hits: they averaged an imposing 10.5 hits in those games compared to only 5.55 in the others. As for Rockledge, with the defeat, they broke their four-game winning streak and moved their record to 8-4.
Merritt Island and Rockledge should be looking forward to their upcoming games as both have a sizable advantage in the MaxPreps Florida Rankings. Merritt Island (ranked 88th) will meet Evangelical Christian (ranked 334th) at 3:00 p.m. on Monday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average, (Merritt Island 2.6, Rockledge 4) so any runs scored will be well earned. Similarly, Rockledge will face off against Menendez at 4:30 p.m. on Friday up 328 places (84 vs. 412). Merritt Island is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 6.5 runs per game this season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
