The Sunny Hills Lancers will challenge the La Habra Highlanders at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Sunny Hills 3, La Habra 3.3) so any runs scored will be well earned.
On Tuesday, Sunny Hills earned a 5-1 win over Garden Grove.
Samantha Apolinar spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: she surrendered only one earned run on three hits and racked up nine Ks.
At the plate, Elayna Marquez was incredible, scoring two runs while going 4-for-4. Riley Gonzalez was another key player, going 3-for-4 with two doubles and one RBI.
Sunny Hills was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .419. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Garden Grove only posted a batting average of .167.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for La Habra, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Friday. They won by a run and slipped past El Dorado 6-5. The Highlanders haven't had any issues with the Golden Hawks recently, as the game was their fourth consecutive victory against them.
La Habra also got a great performance from Maddison Payne as she tossed six innings while giving up just two earned (and three unearned) runs off six hits.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Alyssa Hernandez, who went 2-for-4 with one home run and four RBI. Another player making a difference was Georgia Rickenbacker, who scored two runs and stole two bases while getting on base in two of her four plate appearances.
Sunny Hills is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games. That's provided a nice bump to their 8-5 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.5 runs on average over those games. La Habra pushed their record up to 11-6 with the victory, which was their third straight at home.
Sunny Hills came out on top in a nail-biter against La Habra when the teams last played back in April of 2024, sneaking past 6-5. Will Sunny Hills repeat their success, or does La Habra has a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
