Baseball Recap: Los Banos Has No Trouble Against Merced

After having lost a blowout in their previous game, Los Banos was happy to have turned things around on Friday. Everything went their way against the Merced Bears as Los Banos made off with an 11-3 victory. The result was nothing new for the Tigers, who have now won three contests by eight runs or more so far this season.

Los Banos got a great performance from Jesse Vasquez as he struck out seven batters over 4.2 innings while giving up just two earned (and one unearned) runs off one hit. Vasquez has become a key player for Los Banos: the team is 2-1 when he allows at most two hits, but 1-4 otherwise.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Julian Cazares, who went a perfect 4-for-4 with one home run, four RBI, and two runs. Los Banos is 2-1 when Cazares posts two or more runs, but 1-4 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Colton Kocher, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 3-for-4.

Tigers

Batting Average

03/21/25 vs Merced	38.7%
03/19/25 @ Merced	12.5%
03/07/25 vs Orestimba	26.9%
03/01/25 vs Hilmar	22.2%
02/26/25 vs Mountain House	28.1%
+ 6 more games

Los Banos was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .387. The last time their batting average was this high was back in April of 2024.

Los Banos has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches. That's provided a nice bump to their 3-5 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 8.0 runs over those games. Merced's loss was their fifth straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 4-7.

Los Banos has already played their next game, a 6-4 victory against Atwater on the 24th. As for Merced, they also didn't take long to hit the field again: they've already played their next contest, a 14-4 defeat against Golden Valley on the 24th.