The Etiwanda Eagles will challenge the West Ranch Wildcats at 3:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Etiwanda sitting on four straight wins and West Ranch on seven.
Etiwanda is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They walked away with an 8-3 victory over Servite. That's two games straight that the Eagles have won by exactly five runs.
Michael Aleman spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered three earned runs on nine hits and racked up six Ks.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Derick Kim, who went 2-for-3 with three RBI, one triple, and one run. That's the most RBI he has posted since back in April. Another player making a difference was Lj Roellig, who went 1-for-3 with one home run and two RBI.
Meanwhile, while West Ranch put up some runs on Friday, the same can't be said for Sultana. The Wildcats blew past the Sultans 10-0. West Ranch's win was all the more impressive since the Sultans were averaging only 3.79 runs allowed on the season.
Sultana's batters probably weren't too happy with Hunter Manning, who pitched a no hitter and racked up eight Ks (he gave up two walks). Manning has been consistent: he hasn't tossed less than six strikeouts in six consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, West Ranch let Mikey Murr and Nolan Stoll run wild. Murr got on base in three of his four plate appearances with one home run and two runs, while Stoll went 1-for-4 with one home run and two runs. The team also got some help courtesy of Ryan Oh, who went 2-for-3 with two runs and one double.
West Ranch hit smart and finished the game with only two strikeouts. The team has now struck out at least four batters in three consecutive games.
West Ranch pushed their record up to 23-9 with the victory, which was their 16th straight at home dating back to last season. The home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.4 runs on average over those games. As for Etiwanda, their record now sits at 17-12-1.
