The Coastal Academy Stingrays are taking a road trip to challenge the Foothills Christian Knights at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Coastal Academy is headed in fresh off scoring the most runs they have all season. They were the clear victors by a 24-6 margin over Tri-City Christian on Friday. The win continues a trend for the Stingrays in their matchups with the Eagles: they've now won eight in a row.
Meanwhile, Foothills Christian won against Calvin Christian on Thursday with 19 runs and they decided to stick to that run total again on Friday. The Knights blew past the Crusaders 19-3. The victory was familiar territory for the Knights, who have now won three matches in a row.
Jack Morgan and Jr Merino made a big impact no matter where they played. Throwing, Morgan struck out seven batters over five innings while giving up just two earned (and one unearned) runs off four hits. Meanwhile, Merino pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. He is becoming a predictor of Foothills Christian's success: when he allows at most one hit the team is 3-1 (and 8-10 when he doesn't). At the plate, Morgan got on base in five of his six plate appearances with five RBI, three runs, and two doubles, while Merino went 2-for-3 with three RBI, two runs, and one double. What's more, Morgan posted three hits, the most he's had since back in March.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Josh Howard, who got on base in four of his five plate appearances with two stolen bases, three runs, and two RBI. That's the most runs he has posted since back in April of 2024. Bruce Bailey was another key player, getting on base in three of his four plate appearances with two runs, one stolen base, and one double.
Foothills Christian always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .571. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Calvin Christian only posted an OBP of .290.
Coastal Academy's win was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 11-7. Those home victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 13.8 runs over those games. As for Foothills Christian, the win got them back to even at 11-11.
Coastal Academy suffered a grim 15-0 defeat to Foothills Christian when the teams last played back in March. Can the Stingrays avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
