Mainland is 0-10 against Matanzas since April of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Monday. The Mainland Buccaneers will head out on the road to face off against the Matanzas Pirates at 6:00 p.m. Mainland will be hoping to continue their three-game streak of scoring more runs each game than the last.
Mainland is headed into the matchup fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They blew past Crescent City 12-2.
Eric Bell made a big impact while hitting and pitching. He struck out nine batters over five innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off three hits. Bell was also solid in the batter's box, scoring two runs and stealing two bases while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Mateo Bond, who scored a run and stole three bases while going 1-for-2. Jaydon Murphy was another key contributor, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, it was a hard-fought contest, but Matanzas had to settle for a 6-5 loss against Vanguard on Wednesday. Matanzas has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Matanzas also got a good showing from Reggie Bass, who pitched 2.2 innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit.
On the hitting side, Matanzas saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Ethan DiGuglielmo, who scored a run while going 1-for-3. Another player making a difference was Josh Cope, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-3.
Mainland's victory ended a four-game drought at home and bumped them up to 6-10. As for Matanzas, their defeat dropped their record down to 9-13.
Mainland came up short against Matanzas when the teams last played on April 4th, falling 11-6. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Cope, who struck out seven batters over four innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits (and not a single walk). Now that Mainland knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
