The Tularosa Wildcats will head out on the road to square off against the Capitan Tigers at 3:00 p.m. on Friday. Tularosa is coming into the contest hot, having won their last ten games.
Tularosa is headed into the matchup fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They put the hurt on Lordsburg with a sharp 21-9 win on Tuesday. Tularosa might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team's won 12 games by six runs or more this season.
Jalen Randall made a big impact while hitting and pitching. He pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. Randall was also big at the plate, scoring a run while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances.
In other batting news, Davin Mendez and Xavier Chavez did most of the damage at the plate: Mendez scored two runs and stole three bases while going 1-for-2, while Chavez scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-4. Mendez has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last three times he's played. Another player making a difference was Hunter Sewell, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-1.
Meanwhile, after a string of three wins, Capitan's good fortune finally ran out on Tuesday. They fell just short of Mescalero Apache by a score of 7-5.
Jack Emerson-Betti was cooking despite his team's loss, going 2-for-3 with a triple, a stolen base, and a run. Christian Marquez was another key contributor, going 2-for-2 with two RBI and a double.
Even though they lost, Capitan didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with eight strikeouts. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Mescalero Apache only tossed three.
Tularosa's victory was their sixth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 15-8. As for Capitan, their loss ended a five-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 8-8.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Friday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Tularosa has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 6.9 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Capitan struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.7. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Tularosa came out on top in a nail-biter against Capitan in their previous matchup two weeks ago, sneaking past 10-9. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Capitan's Logan Ritter, who struck out six batters over 3.2 innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off two hits (and only one walk). Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Tularosa still be able to contain Ritter? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
