The Foothill Knights will take on the Yucaipa Thunderbirds at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Foothill comes in on four and Yucaipa on six.
Foothill is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They never let Barlow get on the board and left with a 17-0 victory on Thursday. The Knights' pitching crew has been rock solid lately; the team hasn't given up a run in their last three games.
Brayden Bianchi tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and allowed only one hit while striking out six over five innings pitched. Those six strikeouts gave him a new career-high.
On the hitting side, Evrett Rycroft was a standout: he scored three runs while going 2-for-3. Those three runs gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Gavin Lauridsen, who went 1-for-2 with one home run and four RBI.
Foothill always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .614. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
For whatever reason, it's the away team that's had the advantage when Yucaipa and Redlands East Valley meet (four straight games heading into this one) and that held true again on Friday. Yucaipa had just enough and edged out Redlands East Valley 1-0. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest win the Thunderbirds have posted against the Wildcats since March 8, 2023.
Not much got past Logan Pashman, who gave up just three hits and racked up six Ks to keep Redlands East Valley off the board. That's the fewest hits Pashman has allowed since back in February.
At the plate, Yucaipa's victory was truly a team effort as three different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Evan Heaton, who went 1-for-2 with one stolen base.
Foothill pushed their record up to 12-3 with the win, which was their third straight at home. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.3 runs on average over those games. As for Yucaipa, their win bumped their record up to 10-2.
Yucaipa's hitters will have their work cut out for them on Saturday. Foothill has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.1 strikeouts per game. It's a different story for Yucaipa, though, as they've been averaging only 4 strikeouts. Will Foothill keep running through batters, or will Yucaipa buck the trend?
Foothill couldn't quite finish off Yucaipa when the teams last played back in February and fell 3-1. Can Foothill avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
