The Nogales Apaches will head out on the road to face off against the Salpointe Catholic Lancers at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Nogales entered their tilt with Cienega with three consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with four. Everything went their way against the Bobcats on Thursday as they made off with a 9-3 win.
Nogales got a great performance from Sal Valenzuela as he didn't allow a single earned run and only two hits while striking out 13 over five innings pitched. Valenzuela has been consistent recently: he hasn't tossed less than seven strikeouts in four consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Alan Durazo, who scored three runs and stole a base while going 3-for-4. Denzel Montijo was another key contributor, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 2-for-4.
Meanwhile, Salpointe Catholic stacked a sixth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Thursday. They put the hurt on Sahuaro with a sharp 11-1 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for Salpointe Catholic.
Shawn Barros made a splash no matter where he played. On the mound, he pitched five innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits. Barros was also solid in the batter's box, getting on base in three of his four plate appearances with an RBI.
In other batting news, Aciel Guillen was incredible, going 2-for-3 with four RBI, two runs, and two doubles. Another player making a difference was Adan Koch Rodriguez, who scored two runs while going 2-for-3.
Nogales pushed their record up to 8-6 with that win, which was their fourth straight at home. Those victories were due in large part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 10.0 runs per game. As for Salpointe Catholic, they are on a roll lately: they've won eight of their last ten matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 11-4-1 record this season.
Nogales skirted past Salpointe Catholic 1-0 in their previous meeting back in April of 2023. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Salpointe Catholic's Diego Garcia, who struck out six batters over six innings while giving up just one earned run off six hits. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be that much easier for Nogales to walk away with another win? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
