The West Mesa Mustangs will square off against the Albuquerque Bulldogs at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. West Mesa has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the match with four straight losses, while Albuquerque will come in with three straight wins.
On Tuesday, West Mesa didn't have quite enough to beat Atrisco Heritage Academy and fell 7-6.
Trinity 'Toots' Bazan was cooking despite her team's loss, scoring two runs while going 2-for-3. Another player making a difference was Mya Baca, who went 2-for-3 with one double and one RBI.
Meanwhile, Albuquerque made easy work of Rio Grande on Friday and carried off a 17-1 victory. The Bulldogs might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won ten contests by six runs or more this season.
Raquel Waldrop made a big impact no matter where she played. She looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run and allowing only one hit while striking out six over five innings pitched. Waldrop was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring three runs and stealing four bases while getting on base in three of her four plate appearances. With that strong performance, she is now averaging an impressive 1.1 stolen bases per game.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Emma Gonzalez, who went 2-for-3 with four stolen bases, three runs, and four RBI. Those four RBI gave her a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Joselyn Estrada, who went 2-for-3 with two runs, one triple, and two RBI.
Albuquerque always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .568. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Rio Grande only posted an OBP of .333.
Albuquerque's win bumped their record up to 10-6. As for West Mesa, their defeat dropped their record down to 7-12.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Wednesday. West Mesa hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.6 home runs per game. However, it's not like Albuquerque struggles in that department as they've been averaging an even more impressive 0.8 home runs. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
West Mesa suffered a grim 15-2 defeat to Albuquerque in their previous meeting back in March of 2024. Can the Mustangs avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
