Baseball Game Preview: Santa Monica Vikings vs. Leuzinger Olympians

Santa Monica has won five straight games at home, while Leuzinger has won five straight on the road, but those streaks won't matter much on Monday. The Vikings will host the Olympians at 3:15 p.m. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.

On Thursday, Santa Monica sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 2-1 win over Culver City. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Vikings have posted against the Centaurs since May 27, 2021.

Eddie Jennings spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered a run (which was unearned) on five hits and racked up seven Ks. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in nine consecutive appearances.

On the hitting side, Santa Monica's win was truly a team effort as three different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Jackson Myrow, who went 1-for-3 with one run.

Meanwhile, it may have taken nine innings to finish the job, but Leuzinger ultimately got the result they hoped for on Thursday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Hawthorne, sneaking past 3-2. The victory continues a trend for the Olympians in their matchups with the Cougars: they've now won six in a row.

Santa Monica has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten games. That's provided a nice bump to their 20-6 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.2 runs on average over those games. As for Leuzinger, their victory bumped their record up to 14-4.