The Western Christian Fighting Lancers will challenge the Cornerstone Christian Crusaders at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average, (Western Christian 3.6, Cornerstone Christian 1.6) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Western Christian is coming in off a wild two-game stretch: after soaring to 12 runs on Saturday, they were much more limited against Marshall on Tuesday. They fell just short of the Eagles by a score of 3-2.
Owen Smith was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he struck out seven batters over 5.1 innings while giving up just two earned (and one unearned) runs off five hits.
Reece Peters
| 03/11/25 @ Marshall | 3 |
| 02/25/25 vs Entrepreneur | 3 |
| 03/07/25 @ Jurupa Valley | 2 |
| 03/08/25 @ Mountain View | 1 |
At the plate, Reece Peters was cooking despite his team's loss, scoring a run and stealing Three bases. while going 1-for-3. He has become a key player for Western Christian: the team is 2-1 when he posts at least two stolen bases, but 1-3 otherwise. Will Stradley was another key player, going 2-for-3 with two stolen bases.
Meanwhile, Cornerstone Christian didn't have quite enough to beat California Lutheran on Monday and fell 3-1. The Crusaders have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Dylan Kelly spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered three runs (all of which were unearned) on two hits and racked up 16 Ks. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in strikeouts.
On the hitting side, Cornerstone Christian saw two different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Jonus Lance, who scored a run and stole a base while going 1-for-3. Lance has been hot, having posted at least one stolen base the last six times he's played.
Cornerstone Christian's loss dropped their record down to 4-3. As for Western Christian, they now have a losing record of 3-4.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Thursday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Western Christian has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 8 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Cornerstone Christian struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.9 strikeouts. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Western Christian came up short against Cornerstone Christian in their previous matchup back in February, falling 5-2. Will Western Christian have more luck at home instead of on the road? Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other baseball content.
