Baseball Recap: La Junta Takes a Loss

After soaring to 21 runs the game before, La Junta was a bit more limited in their game on Friday. They fell 7-2 to Sterling. La Junta was given a dose of their own medicine in this game as Sterling apparently hadn't forgotten their loss the last time these teams played back in May of 2024.

Eli Stokes

Batters Struck Out (Career)

03/28/25 vs Sterling	4
03/20/25 vs Shadow Mountain	3
05/14/24 @ Florence	3
05/08/24 @ Lamar	1

Eli Stokes and Zayden Franklin were huge while hitting and pitching even without the win. On the mound, Stokes tossed four innings while giving up just one earned (and five unearned) runs off one hit. Meanwhile, Franklin pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off three hits. The dominant performance also gave Stokes a new career-high in strikeouts (four). At bat, Stokes got on base in three of his four plate appearances with one RBI, while Franklin went a perfect 2-for-2 with one triple and one run. That triple marked the first that Franklin hit this season.

La Junta has been struggling recently as they've lost three of their last four matchups. That's put a noticeable dent in their 2-5 record this season. The victory was the third in a row for Sterling, bringing their record up to 3-0.

Looking ahead, La Junta will be playing in front of their home fans against Lamar at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. La Junta's pitchers better be ready for this one: Lamar has averaged an impressive 6.2 runs per game this season. As for Sterling, they will challenge Pueblo East at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.