Salpointe Catholic has won nine straight games at home, while St. Mary has won nine straight on the road, but those streaks won't matter much on Saturday. The Lancers will welcome the Knights at 11:00 a.m. Salpointe Catholic's pitching crew has only allowed 3.1 runs per game this season, so St. Mary's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
Salpointe Catholic is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Arizona's top teams: Catalina Foothills, who was ranked 15th at the time (Salpointe Catholic was ranked sixth). The Lancers came out on top against the Falcons by a score of 8-4 on Monday.
Sam Meisner looked comfortable as he tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit.
Aciel Guillen
| 04/28/25 vs Catalina Foothills | 4 |
| 04/12/25 vs Notre Dame Prep | 3 |
| 04/29/24 vs Flagstaff | 3 |
| 04/09/24 vs Flowing Wells | 3 |
| 02/29/24 @ Rincon/University | 3 |
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Aciel Guillen, who went a perfect 4-for-4 with two runs, one triple, and one double. Those four hits gave him a new career-high. David Driskill was another key player, going 2-for-4 with one home run and two RBI.
Salpointe Catholic was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .385. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Catalina Foothills only posted a batting average of .083.
Meanwhile, it can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but St. Mary's had no problem doing just that on Wednesday. They walked away with an 8-5 victory over the Panthers. The win continues a trend for the Knights in their matchups with the Panthers: they've now won three in a row.
St. Mary's victory was truly a team effort as eight different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Luis Mejia, who went 3-for-4 with two runs and one triple. Mejia has become a key player for the Knights: the team is 9-2 when he posts at least two runs, but 7-9 otherwise. Another was Mikey Nanez, who went 1-for-4 with three runs.
Salpointe Catholic has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches. That somehow still isn't as good as their 21-4-1 record this season. As for St. Mary's, their win bumped their record up to 16-11.
Everything went Salpointe Catholic's way against St. Mary's when the teams last played back in March of 2021, as Salpointe Catholic made off with a 12-5 victory. Will the Lancers repeat their success, or do the Knights have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
