Baseball Game Preview: Liberty Bison vs. Poly Bears

The Liberty Bison will square off against the Poly Bears at 3:15 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Liberty has three straight wins, Poly has four straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.

The home team had won the previous two meetings between Liberty and Paloma Valley, and Liberty kept the tradition alive. The Bison walked away with a 7-3 victory over the Wildcats on Wednesday.

Martin Naranjo looked comfortable as he tossed four innings while giving up just two earned runs off three hits.

On the hitting side, Liberty let Matthew Schaeffer and Adrick Brown run wild. Schaeffer went 1-for-3 with one home run, while Brown went 1-for-3 with one run, one double, and one RBI. That home run was Schaeffer's first of the season. Xzavian Mazariegos was another key player, going 2-for-3 with three RBI.

Poly had taken Moreno Valley down for two straight games at home, but that winning streak came to an end on Wednesday. The Bears fell just short of the Vikings by a score of 8-7. That's two games in a row now that the Bears have lost by just one run.

Maddox Hackworth made the most of his time in the batter's box despite the final result and went a perfect 4-for-4 with one home run and two runs. Another player making a difference was Matt Henry, who went 2-for-5 with one home run and three runs.

Liberty now has a winning record of 11-10. As for Poly, their defeat dropped their record down to 13-9.