Baseball Game Preview: Garfield Bulldogs vs. Rainier Beach Vikings

Garfield has gone a perfect 8-0 against Rainier Beach recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Bulldogs will welcome the Vikings at 4:00 p.m. Rainier Beach took a loss in their last game and will be looking to turn the tables on Garfield, who comes in off a win.

Garfield's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Wednesday. They walked away with a 5-0 victory over Cleveland. That five run margin sets a new team best for the Bulldogs this season.

Cleveland's batters probably weren't too happy with Taylor Woods, who pitched a no hitter and racked up seven Ks (he gave up a single walk). Woods also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because Garfield is 2-1 when he allows at most one earned run, but 5-6 otherwise.

Owen Ward

Hits (Career)

04/16/25 @ Cleveland	2
04/14/25 @ Seattle Academy	1
04/08/25 @ Roosevelt	1
03/31/25 vs Lincoln	1
03/29/25 @ Mountlake Terrace	1

At the plate, Garfield got a big performance out of Owen Ward, who scored a run while going 2-for-2. Those two hits gave Ward a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Burke Lowe, who went 2-for-4 with one stolen base, one double, and one RBI.

Meanwhile, Rainier Beach was not able to break out of their rough patch on Wednesday as the team picked up their eighth straight loss. They lost 37-2 to Seattle Academy.

Rainier Beach saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Judah Plant, who scored a run while going 1-for-2. That run marked the first that Plant scored this season.

Garfield's win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 7-7. The road victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.7 runs on average over those games. As for Rainier Beach, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-8.

Garfield took their win against Rainier Beach in their previous meeting back in March of 2023 by a conclusive 17-2 score. Will the Bulldogs repeat their success, or do the Vikings have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.