Baseball Game Preview: Orange Lutheran Lancers vs. Santa Margarita Eagles

For the second straight game, Orange Lutheran will face off against Santa Margarita. The Lancers will be playing at home against the Eagles at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Orange Lutheran has five straight wins, Santa Margarita has four straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.

Orange Lutheran is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of California's top teams: Santa Margarita, who was ranked 16th at the time (Orange Lutheran was ranked third). The Lancers' pitchers stepped up to hand the Eagles a 4-0 shutout on Wednesday. The Lancers' pitching crew has been rock solid lately; the team hasn't given up a run in their last three contests.

Gary Morse tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and allowing only one hit over 4.2 innings pitched.

At the plate, Orange Lutheran saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Ricardo Hurtado, who went 2-for-3 with one stolen base and two RBI. Those two RBI gave Hurtado a new career-high.

Orange Lutheran pushed their record up to 16-4 with the victory, which was their third straight at home. Those home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.7 runs on average over those games. As for Santa Margarita, their loss dropped their record down to 11-9.