The Saint Mary's Panthers will look to defend their home field on Wednesday against the Justin-Siena Braves at 5:00 p.m. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Saint Mary's is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Saturday. They beat Healdsburg by the very same score they won with in their prior game: 8-0. The victory was nothing new for Saint Mary's as they're now sitting on six straight.
Not much got past Aidan Donoviel, who gave up just three hits and racked up six Ks to keep Healdsburg off the board. It was the first time this season that Donoviel tossed five or more strikeouts.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Logan Donoviel, who scored a run and stole two bases while going 2-for-3. The team also got some help courtesy of Jayson Webb, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, Justin-Siena's hitters rose to the challenge against a Knights pitching crew that boasted an average of only 2.48 runs allowed on Saturday. Justin-Siena never let Kelseyville onto the board and left with a 12-0 win. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Justin-Siena.
Luke Giusto was a major factor while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he didn't allow a single earned run and only one hit while striking out seven over four innings pitched. Giusto has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in three consecutive pitching appearances. Giusto was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 2-for-2.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Jake Fletcher, who scored two runs while going 3-for-3. Ben Sebastiani was another key contributor, going 2-for-2 with a triple, two RBI, and a run.
Saint Mary's has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight matches, which provided a massive bump to their 16-9 record this season. As for Justin-Siena, their victory bumped their record up to 15-9.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Wednesday. Saint Mary's hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 0.5 home runs per game. However, it's not like Justin-Siena struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.7. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
Saint Mary's was able to grind out a solid win over Justin-Siena in their previous matchup back in May of 2022, winning 5-1. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Justin-Siena's Nick Andrews, who struck out seven batters over five innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits (and only one walk). Now that he won't be playing on Wednesday, will it be that much easier for Saint Mary's 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
