Baseball Game Preview: Morningside Monarchs vs. Santa Monica Vikings

For the second straight game, Morningside will face off against Santa Monica. Morningside will be playing in front of their home fans against Santa Monica at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Morningside has struggled recently with eight defeats in a row, while Santa Monica will arrive with four straight wins.

Tuesday just wasn't the day for Morningside's offense. They lost 21-0 to Santa Monica on Tuesday.

For Santa Monica's part, Kaveh Naini was a major factor no matter where he played. He kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out 12 over five innings pitched. Those 12 strikeouts gave Naini a new career-high. He was also big at the plate, scoring two runs while going 1-for-2.

In other batting news, Santa Monica got a massive performance out of Aaron Heirigs, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with three RBI, two runs, and one triple. Those two runs gave Heirigs a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Eric Gonzalez, who went 2-for-4 with one home run and three runs.

Santa Monica always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .590. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Morningside only posted an OBP of .062.

Morningside's loss dropped their record down to 2-9. As for Santa Monica, their victory bumped their record up to 9-4.