Baseball Game Preview: Verdugo Hills Dons vs. Banning Pilots

Verdugo Hills hasn't had much luck against Banning recently, but that could start to change on Wednesday. The Dons will face off against the Pilots at 6:00 p.m. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.

Verdugo Hills is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Saturday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 5-4 victory over San Pedro. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Dons.

Miguel Wong looked comfortable as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit over four innings pitched.

David Castaneda

Doubles (Career)

05/17/25 @ San Pedro	2
04/28/25 vs San Fernando	1
03/22/25 @ Marshall	1
02/25/25 @ San Marino	1
05/16/24 vs Los Angeles CES	1

At the plate, the team relied heavily on David Castaneda, who went a perfect 3-for-3 with three runs and two doubles. Those two doubles gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Bryan Aquino, who earned three RBI.

Meanwhile, Banning had already won nine in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 6.6 runs) and they went ahead and made it ten on Saturday. They came within a single run of losing the streak, but they secured a 2-1 W against the Bulldogs.

Banning saw seven different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Pedro Ibanez-Eddy, who went a perfect 3-for-3 with one run.

Banning's win bumped their record up to 21-8. As for Verdugo Hills, their victory bumped their record up to 13-16.

Verdugo Hills came up short against Banning when the teams last played back in May of 2024, falling 4-1. Can the Dons avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.