Baseball Game Preview: Pleasant Valley Vikings vs. Clear Lake Cardinals

The Pleasant Valley Vikings will challenge the Clear Lake Cardinals at 8:00 a.m. on Friday. Pleasant Valley's pitching crew has only allowed four runs per game this season, so Clear Lake's hitters will have their work cut out for them.

Pleasant Valley barely beat Golden Valley the last time the pair played, but that sure wasn't the case this time around. Pleasant Valley put the hurt on Golden Valley with a sharp 8-2 victory on Thursday. The Vikings not only won on Thursday, but they posted their biggest win since April 23, 2024.

Benji Montgomery looked comfortable as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits over four innings pitched.

On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Scotty McKeown, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI, one triple, and one run. Holden Franks also deserves some recognition as he scored his first run of the season.

Meanwhile, Clear Lake earned a 6-1 win over Napa on Thursday. That's two games straight that the Cardinals have won by exactly five runs.

Johnny Gonzales Jr was incredible, scoring a run and stealing Three bases. while going 3-for-4. Another player making a difference was Jesse Hayes, who scored two runs and stole Two bases. while getting on base in two of his four plate appearances.

The victory made it two in a row for Clear Lake and bumps their season record up to a perfect 2-0. Those victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.5 runs on average over those games. As for Pleasant Valley, the win got them back to even at 2-2.