Baseball Game Preview: Irvine Vaqueros vs. Northwood Timberwolves

The Irvine Vaqueros are taking a road trip to take on the Northwood Timberwolves at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.

Irvine took a nine-run loss the last time they faced off against Northwood, but this time they managed to keep it close and that made all the difference. Irvine sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 3-1 victory over Northwood on Thursday. The win was a breath of fresh air for the Vaqueros as it put an end to their six-game losing streak.

Drake Brito spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on four hits and racked up seven Ks. Irvine is 3-1 when Brito allowstwo or fewer earned runs, but 2-6 otherwise.

Ethan Kim

Runs (Career)

03/20/25 vs Northwood	2
03/08/25 @ Costa Mesa	1
03/04/25 vs Mission Viejo	1
02/26/25 vs Newport Harbor	1

At the plate, Ethan Kim was excellent, scoring two runs while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances. Those two runs gave him a new career-high. Evan Tamayo also deserves some recognition as he hit his first double of the season.

Northwood's defeat was their fourth straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 4-5-1. Even worse, they were so close so many times: the losses came by an average of only 1.25 runs. As for Irvine, their victory was their first in the league, bumping their league record up to 1-2 and their overall record up to 5-7.