The Tombstone Yellow Jackets will face off against the Santa Cruz Valley Dust Devils at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Tombstone will bounce into Saturday's game after beating Willcox, who they had gone 2-7 against in their nine prior meetings. The Yellow Jackets put the hurt on the Cowboys with a sharp 20-10 win last Friday. The game snapped a strange streak: the last four times these teams have met, it?s been the away team that?s taken home the W.
Kyla Gross and Bria Gross were major factors while hitting and pitching. On the mound, Gross didn't allow a single earned run over four innings pitched. Meanwhile, Bria pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. She has been nothing but reliable on the mound: she hasn't given up more than two walks in 11 consecutive appearances. At bat, Gross got on base in four of her five plate appearances with two runs, one double, and one RBI, while Bria went 1-for-4 with one home run and two RBI.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Hayden Dobbins, who went 4-for-5 with one home run, five RBI, and two runs. Another player making a difference was Liliana Garcia, who went 2-for-4 with three runs, two RBI, and one double.
Meanwhile, Santa Cruz Valley had already proven themselves in the regular season and they didn't miss a beat now that it's playoff time. Everything went their way against Pima on Wednesday as they made off with an 11-1 victory. The high-scoring effort was just what the Dust Devils needed considering they were shut out in their previous matchup.
Melody Cade was a standout: she went a perfect 3-for-3 with one triple, two RBI, and one run. That's the most RBI she has posted over her last 11 contests. The team also got some help courtesy of Mariah Davis, who went 2-for-3 with three RBI, one run, and one double.
Santa Cruz Valley was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .407. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Pima only posted a batting average of .250.
Santa Cruz Valley pushed their record up to 18-9 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home. Those home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.6 runs on average over those games. As for Tombstone, they now have a winning record of 14-13.
Tombstone couldn't quite finish off Santa Cruz Valley in their previous matchup last Tuesday and fell 8-6. Will the Yellow Jackets have more luck at home instead of on the road? Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other softball content.
