Baseball Recap: Branham Comes Up Short

Branham extended their losing streak to nine on Thursday, dropping them down to 3-9. They took a 7-2 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Leigh Longhorns. Unfortunately, that's the second time they've come up short against the Longhorns this season, as they also lost their prior matchup 5-1 on Tuesday.

Ethan Vietvu made the most of his time in the batter's box despite the final result and went 2-for-3 with one run and one double.

As for Leigh, they pushed their record up to 9-2 with the victory, which was their fourth straight at home. Those home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.3 runs on average over those games.

On Leigh's side, Graham Pisani made a big impact no matter where he played. On the mound, he tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. Pisani has been consistent: he hasn't given up more than one hit in five consecutive appearances. He was also solid in the batter's box, going 1-for-2 with one triple, one stolen base, and one run.

In other batting news, the team relied heavily on John Arevalo III, who went 2-for-3 with one home run, two runs, and one stolen base. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in RBI (two).

Branham and Leigh could both be facing uphill battles in their next games considering their disadvantage in the MaxPreps California Rankings. The Bruins will take on Piedmont Hills at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday with a big rank disadvantage (861 vs. 338). Meanwhile, Leigh (ranked 160th) will meet Soquel (ranked 26th) at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday.