Baseball Game Preview: Torrance Tartars vs. Fountain Valley Barons

The Torrance Tartars will face off against the Fountain Valley Barons at 3:15 p.m. on Friday. Both come into the match bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Torrance is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They narrowly escaped with a win as the team sidled past Oaks Christian 3-2. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Tartars.

The team relied heavily on Mateo Rickman, who went 1-for-3 with one home run and three RBI.

Meanwhile, Fountain Valley owes their pitching crew a big pat on the back after their performance on Tuesday. Everything went their way against Trabuco Hills as they made off with a 7-0 victory. The Barons not only won on Tuesday, but they posted their biggest win since April 2nd (when they won 9-1).

Josh Grack was a major factor no matter where he played. On the mound, he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits over seven innings pitched. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than two walks in six consecutive appearances. He was also solid in the batter's box, going 1-for-2 with two RBI, one run, and one double. That's the most RBI he has posted since back in April.

In other batting news, Mikey Patterson was excellent, going 2-for-4 with two runs, one triple, and one RBI. Those two runs gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Anthony Zamora, who went 2-for-4 with two runs and one RBI.

Torrance pushed their record up to 19-10 with the win, which was their fifth straight at home. They've had to fight for that success though, as they only beat their opponents by an average of 2.4 runs across that stretch. As for Fountain Valley, their victory bumped their record up to 17-13.