Baseball Game Preview: Elk Grove Thundering Herd vs. Downey Knights

The Elk Grove Thundering Herd will square off against the Downey Knights at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Elk Grove has eight straight wins, Downey has three straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.

Elk Grove's pitching crew heads into the contest hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Thursday. They blew past Sheldon 12-0. The result was nothing new for the Thundering Herd, who have now won nine games by six runs or more so far this season.

Elk Grove got a great performance from Anthony Bascherini as he kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits while striking out nine over five innings pitched. Those nine strikeouts gave Bascherini a new career-high.

Chase Groves

Stolen Base (Career)

05/01/25 @ Sheldon	2
03/31/25 @ Laguna Creek	1
03/26/25 @ Pleasant Grove	1
03/24/25 vs Pleasant Grove	1
03/07/25 vs Granite Bay	1

At the plate, Chase Groves was a standout: he went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, two runs, and one triple. Those two stolen bases gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Landon Johnson, who went 2-for-3 with two runs, one triple, and one RBI.

Elk Grove kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 11 hits. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Sheldon didn't got any hits.

Meanwhile, Downey came up short against Turlock on Friday, falling 10-1. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest loss the Knights have suffered against the Bulldogs since April 12, 2023.

Elk Grove pushed their record up to 19-9 with the victory, which was their fifth straight on the road. The road wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.2 runs on average over those games. As for Downey, their defeat dropped their record down to 13-15.