The St. Monica Mariners will head out on the road to take on the Watsonville Wildcatz at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with St. Monica sitting on three straight wins and Watsonville on nine.
On Wednesday, St. Monica beat Aptos 6-2.
Joey Parra was excellent, going 1-for-3 with one home run. Dylan Hyman also deserves some recognition as he snagged his first stolen base of the season.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Watsonville). They put the hurt on Seaside with a sharp 22-0 victory on Thursday. The Wildcatz might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won seven contests by ten runs or more this season.
Mathew Silva made a big impact while hitting and pitching. He didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits while striking out nine over five innings pitched. Those nine strikeouts gave him a new career-high. He was also big at the plate, getting on base in five of his six plate appearances with three runs and three RBI. He is becoming a predictor of Watsonville's success: when he posts at least two runs the team is undefeated (and 5-9 when he doesn't).
In other batting news, Ben Miller was a standout: he went a perfect 2-for-2 with four RBI and two runs. Those four RBI gave him a new career-high. Rudy Valdez was another key player, going a perfect 2-for-2 with three runs and one RBI.
Watsonville was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .444. They are 8-1 when they post a batting average of .375 or better.
Watsonville's win was their fifth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 9-9. The road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.6 runs on average over those games. As for St. Monica, their record now sits at 9-11.
The pitchers for both teams better look sharp on Friday as neither team is afraid to steal. St. Monica has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 2.6 stolen bases per game. However, it's not like Watsonville struggles in that department as they've been averaging 5.8 stolen bases. The only question left is which team can snag more. Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other baseball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
