Softball Game Preview: La Habra Highlanders vs. Sunny Hills Lancers

The La Habra Highlanders will venture away from home to take on the Sunny Hills Lancers at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday. La Habra's pitching crew has only allowed 3.3 runs per game this season, so Sunny Hills' hitters will have their work cut out for them.

La Habra is headed into the match having just posted their closest win since March 6th on Tuesday. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the team sidled past El Dorado 6-5. The win continues a trend for the Highlanders in their matchups with the Golden Hawks: they've now won four in a row.

La Habra got a great performance from Maddison Payne as she tossed six innings while giving up just two earned (and three unearned) runs off six hits.

At the plate, Alyssa Hernandez was incredible, going 2-for-4 with one home run and four RBI. Kayla Ybarra also deserves some recognition as she snagged her first stolen base of the season.

Meanwhile, Sunny Hills beat Garden Grove 5-1 on Tuesday.

Samantha Apolinar spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered only one earned run on three hits and racked up nine Ks.

On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Elayna Marquez, who scored two runs while going 4-for-4. Another player making a difference was Riley Gonzalez, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and one RBI.

Sunny Hills was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .419. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Garden Grove only posted a batting average of .167.

Sunny Hills is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games. That's provided a nice bump to their 8-5 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 6.8 runs over those games. La Habra's win was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 11-6.