A feisty cat fight will be fought as the Panthers duke it out with the Jaguars at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. The last three games Polytechnic has played have been within two runs, so don't be surprised if it's a close one.
On Thursday, Polytechnic didn't have quite enough to beat Muir and fell 4-3. That's two games in a row now that the Panthers have lost by just one run.
Polytechnic saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Caiden Kennedy, who scored a run while going 2-for-3.
Meanwhile, Jurupa Valley was able to grind out a solid win over Ontario on Wednesday, taking the game 6-1. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Jurupa Valley.
Francisco Urena was a major factor no matter where he played. He didn't allow a single earned run while striking out 11 over 5.2 innings pitched. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in strikeouts. He was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring two runs while going 3-for-4.
In other batting news, Jurupa Valley let Jerry Arevalo and Nathan Martinez run wild. Arevalo scored a run while going 2-for-4, while Martinez went 2-for-3 with two runs and one triple. The dominant performance also gave Arevalo a new career-high in RBI (two). Nicholas Higgins was another key player, going 2-for-3 with one double and one RBI.
Jurupa Valley kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 11 hits. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now got at least eight hits every time they've taken the field this season.
Jurupa Valley pushed their record up to 2-1 with the victory, which was their ninth straight on the road dating back to last season. The wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.1 runs over those games. As for Polytechnic, they now have a losing record of 1-2.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Saturday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Polytechnic has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.3 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Jurupa Valley struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.7 strikeouts. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one. Check MaxPreps after the action for a full breakdown of the game and more baseball content.
