The American Heritage Stallions will be playing in front of their home fans against the Dr. Joaquin Garcia Bulldogs at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Neither American Heritage nor Dr. Joaquin Garcia posted many runs in their last games, so it might be the pitching crews that decide this one.
American Heritage's pitching crew heads into the contest hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Tuesday. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past Schoolhouse Prep 2-0. The win made it back-to-back victories for American Heritage.
American Heritage got a great performance from Joey Abbazia as he didn't allow a single earned run and only one hit over six innings pitched. Abbazia has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in four consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, American Heritage saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Zavier Hatfield, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, Dr. Joaquin Garcia was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their third straight loss. Their rough 8-2 defeat to Seminole Ridge might stick with them for a while.
Dr. Joaquin Garcia also got a good showing from Joseph Pallante, who tossed three innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits.
American Heritage is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a massive bump to their 11-10 record this season. As for Dr. Joaquin Garcia, they now have a losing record at 10-11.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Thursday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. American Heritage has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 8.8 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Dr. Joaquin Garcia struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.2. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
American Heritage couldn't quite finish off Dr. Joaquin Garcia in their previous meeting back in March and fell 4-2. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Dr. Joaquin Garcia's Porter Trees, who kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits over four innings pitched. Now that American Heritage knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
