Mesa Verde hasn't had much luck against West Campus recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Mesa Verde Mavericks will take on the West Campus Warriors at 3:30 p.m. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
West Campus will be up against a hot Mesa Verde squad: the team just extended their winning streak to five. Everything went Mesa Verde's way against Western Sierra Collegiate Academy on Thursday as Mesa Verde made off with an 11-3 win. While the Mavericks didn't have the best season last year (they finished 6-21), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past.
Peyton Bonilla looked comfortable as he pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two hits in three consecutive appearances.
Mason Nelson
| 03/06/25 vs Western Sierra Collegiate Academy | 2 |
| 03/04/25 vs Western Sierra Collegiate Academy | 1 |
| 03/03/25 vs Kennedy | 1 |
| 02/28/25 vs Pierce | 1 |
| 02/25/25 vs Burbank | 1 |
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Mason Nelson, who got on base in all four of his plate appearances with one triple and two RBI. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in hits (two). Jonny Alger was another key player, scoring a run and stealing a base while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances.
Mesa Verde kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 11 hits. That's the most hits they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, West Campus got themselves on the board against Valley on Thursday, but Valley never followed suit. They blew past the Vikings 10-0. The Warriors might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won four matchups by ten runs or more this season.
Jarrett Arias made a splash while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out 11 over six innings pitched. Arias was also big at the plate, scoring three runs and stealing Four bases. while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances. West Campus is 3-1 when Arias posts two or more stolen bases, but 2-3 otherwise.
In other batting news, Emmett Scharn was incredible, scoring two runs and stealing Four bases. while going 1-for-2. The team also got some help courtesy of Levi Marculescu, who scored two runs and stole a base.
West Campus is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games. That's provided a nice bump to their 5-4 record this season. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to strikeouts: they averaged an imposing 11 strikeouts in those games compared to only 3.67 in the others. Mesa Verde's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 6-1.
The pitchers for both teams better look sharp on Friday as neither team is afraid to steal. Mesa Verde has been swiping bases left and right this season, having averaged 4.6 stolen bases per game. However, it's not like West Campus struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.3 stolen bases. The only question left is which team can snag more.
Mesa Verde suffered a grim 13-2 defeat to West Campus in their previous meeting back in April of 2018. Can Mesa Verde avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
