The Rio Mesa Spartans will face off against the Newbury Park Panthers at 3:30 p.m. on Monday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty run totals in their previous games.
Newbury Park will be up against a hot Rio Mesa team: the squad just extended their winning streak to three. Rio Mesa walked away with a 12-7 victory over Santa Paula on Thursday. With that win, the Spartans brought their scoring average up to 7 runs per game.
Analia Lopez made a big impact no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out eight over 4.2 innings pitched. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't given up more than two walks any time she's pitched this season. She was also big at the plate, going a perfect 2-for-2 with one home run, three RBI, and two runs.
Sophia Roman
| 02/27/25 vs Santa Paula | 4 |
| 02/25/25 vs St. Bonaventure | 2 |
| 03/29/24 vs Huntington Beach | 2 |
| 05/07/24 @ Temple City | 1 |
| 04/04/24 vs Oak Park | 1 |
In other batting news, Sophia Roman was a standout: she went 1-for-2 with one home run and four RBI. The dominant performance gave her a new career-high in RBI. Another player making a difference was Isabelle Ambriz, who scored three runs and stole a base while getting on base in all three of her plate appearances.
Rio Mesa was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .391. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their batting average total in three consecutive matchups.
Meanwhile, Newbury Park won against Santa Barbara on Saturday with 11 runs and they decided to stick to that run total again on Saturday. Newbury Park was the clear victors by an 11-5 margin over Moorpark. The Panthers might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won five games by six runs or more this season.
Veronica Wasserman spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered just two earned (and three unearned) runs on nine hits.
At the plate, Newbury Park got a massive performance out of Lily Johnson, who scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-4. Skylar Komatsu was another key player, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 3-for-4.
The victory made it two in a row for Newbury Park and bumps their season record up to 7-2. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.5 runs on average over those games. As for Rio Mesa, their win bumped their record up to 3-1.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Monday. Rio Mesa hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 1 home runs per game. However, it's not like Newbury Park struggles in that department as they've been averaging 1 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Rio Mesa skirted past Newbury Park 2-0 when the teams last played back in March of 2019. Does Rio Mesa have another victory up their sleeve, or will Newbury Park turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
