Baseball Game Preview: Portola Bulldogs vs. Laguna Hills Hawks

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Previous Games

03/22/24 - Home	2-1 W
03/20/24 - Away	0-3 L
03/19/24 - Home	4-1 W
03/09/23 - Away	1-3 L
03/08/23 - Home	9-4 W
+ 5 more games

Portola and Laguna Hills are an even 5-5 against one another since May of 2021, but likely not for long. The Portola Bulldogs will be playing at home against the Laguna Hills Hawks at 3:00 p.m. on Friday.

Portola's tournament run continued when they took on Cerritos on Wednesday. Portola fell just short of Cerritos by a score of 5-3.

Portola saw six different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Cooper Marinelli, who went 1-for-3 with one double. Yoshi Tsuge also deserves some recognition as he scored his first run of the season.

Meanwhile, Laguna Hills had just enough and edged out Century 3-2 on Tuesday. The win continues a trend for the Hawks in their matchups with the Centurions: they've now won four in a row.

Kyler FitzPatrick made a splash while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching one inning while giving up no earned runs or hits. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-low in walks (zero). He was also solid in the batter's box, going 1-for-2 with three RBI, one stolen base, and one double. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in RBI.

In other pitching news, Nic Park tossed a big game, striking out eight batters over six innings while giving up just two earned runs off six hits (and only one walk). Those eight strikeouts gave him a new career-high.

Portola now has a losing record of 2-3. As for Laguna Hills, the victory got them back to even at 2-2.

Portola skirted past Laguna Hills 2-1 in their previous matchup back in March of 2024. Will Portola repeat their success, or does Laguna Hills have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.