Baseball Game Preview: Ripon Indians vs. Central Valley Hawks

Ripon is 6-1 against Central Valley since February of 2016 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Friday. The Ripon Indians will challenge the Central Valley Hawks at 3:30 p.m. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W'.

On Wednesday, Ripon came up short against Mountain House and fell 10-6. The Indians have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

Joseph Molthen was huge while hitting and pitching even without the win. On the mound, he struck out seven batters over 3.2 innings while giving up just two earned (and four unearned) runs off five hits. Molthen was even better at the plate, going 1-for-2 with one home run and four RBI.

Landon Kackley

Hits (Career)

02/19/25 @ Mountain House	3
02/17/25 @ Merced	1
02/12/25 @ Mariposa County	1
04/30/24 @ Escalon	1
04/09/24 @ Livingston	1

Molthen wasn't the only one making solid contact as five players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Landon Kackley, who scored a run while going 3-for-4. The dominant performance also gave Kackley a new career-high in hits (three).

Meanwhile, Central Valley didn't have quite enough to beat Manteca on Wednesday and fell 4-3. The Hawks haven't had much luck with the Buffaloes recently, as the team has come up short the last four times they've met.

Marcus Olivas was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he pitched six innings while giving up just one earned (and three unearned) runs off five hits.

Ripon now has a losing record of 1-2. As for Central Valley, their record now sits at 1-1.

Ripon was able to grind out a solid victory over Central Valley when the teams last played back in February of 2024, winning 6-1. Will Ripon repeat their success, or does Central Valley have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.