The Santa Clara Bruins will venture away from home to take on the Saratoga Falcons at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Santa Clara is coming into the match hot, having won their last five games.
Santa Clara proved they can win big on Thursday (they won by ten) and on Saturday they proved they can win the close ones too. They won by a run and slipped past Leland 8-7.
John Kepner made a splash no matter where he played. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching one inning while giving up no earned runs off one hit. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than two walks in six consecutive appearances. He was also solid in the batter's box, going 1-for-3 with one triple and two RBI.
In other batting news, Jaxton Chao was incredible, scoring three runs and stealing a base while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. Dominick Chavarria was another key player, scoring a run while going 2-for-3.
Santa Clara was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .417. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a batting average of .300 or higher in five consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, Saratoga lost 11-4 to Fremont on Tuesday. The Falcons haven't had much luck with the Firebirds recently, as the team has come up short the last four times they've met.
Saratoga saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Shriyans Venkatram, who went 2-for-3 with one RBI. Sachin Sankar also deserves some recognition as he scored his first run of the season.
Santa Clara's victory was their fifth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 14-3. The home wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 11.6 runs over those games. As for Saratoga, their loss dropped their record down to 3-8.
Saratoga's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Santa Clara hasn't had any issues making contact this season, having earned a batting average of .353. It's a different story for Saratoga, though, as they've only averaged .238. Will they be able to contain Santa Clara's hitters?
Everything went Santa Clara's way against Saratoga in their previous meeting back in March, as Santa Clara made off with a 12-2 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Bruins since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
