Santa Maria has enjoyed a three-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They will face off against the Orcutt Academy Spartans at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Neither Santa Maria nor Orcutt Academy posted many runs in their last games, so it might be the pitching crews that decide this one.
Santa Maria's hitters might be in the hot seat on Thursday considering what happened against Nipomo on Thursday. They suffered a rough 14-0 loss at the hands of the Titans.
Meanwhile, Orcutt Academy entered their tilt with Nipomo with four consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with five. They never let the Titans onto the board and left with a 2-0 win on Tuesday.
Valerie Gonzales spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered just zero earned runs on two hits and racked up 14 Ks. She has been nothing but reliable: she hasn't given up more than two walks in nine consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, Orcutt Academy's victory was truly a team effort as five different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Whitney Clevenger, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.
Santa Maria's defeat was their third straight at home, which dropped their record down to 2-5. As for Orcutt Academy, they are on a roll lately: they've won ten of their last 12 games, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season.
Santa Maria suffered a grim 12-0 defeat to Orcutt Academy in their previous matchup back in March. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Gonzales, who kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out 14 over five innings pitched. Now that Santa Maria knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
