The Mentor Cardinals are taking a road trip to challenge the Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy Royals at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Mentor 2.9, Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy 3.4) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy will be up against a hot Mentor team: the squad just extended their winning streak to five. The Cardinals' pitchers stepped up to hand Strongsville a 5-0 shutout on Tuesday. That's two games straight that the Cardinals have won by exactly five runs.
Mentor got a great performance from Peter Kennedy as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits over six innings pitched. Kennedy has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in four consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, Mentor saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Jack Vanhimbergen, who went 1-for-2 with two runs. That's the most runs Vanhimbergen has posted since back in April of 2024. Josh Wieland was another, getting on base in two of his three plate appearances with one stolen base and one run.
Lake Catholic typically has all the answers at home, but on Tuesday Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy proved too difficult a challenge. They had just enough and edged out the Cougars 6-4. The Royals haven't had any issues with the Cougars recently, as the game was their third consecutive victory against them.
Kyle Shaw looked comfortable as he tossed four innings while giving up just two earned runs off four hits.
At the plate, Ryan Wiehe was incredible, going 2-for-4 with one home run and three RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Jonah Gaudio, who went 1-for-3 with one run and one RBI.
Mentor pushed their record up to 13-2 with the win, which was their third straight at home. Those home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.3 runs on average over those games. As for Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, their record now sits at 10-5.
Mentor couldn't quite finish off Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy when the teams last played back in May of 2024 and fell 7-5. Can the Cardinals avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
