Baseball Recap: Payton College Prep Has No Trouble Against Thornridge

Grizzlies

Margin (Wins)

04/03/25 @ Clemente	16
04/05/25 @ North Shore Country Day	12
05/29/25 vs Thornridge	11
05/24/25 @ Maine East	11
04/08/25 @ Taft	11

Payton College Prep never let their opponents score on Thursday. They put the hurt on the Thornridge Falcons with a sharp 11-0 win. Considering the Grizzlies have won 11 games by more than five runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.

Anthony Arena looked comfortable as he struck out six batters over three innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. Payton College Prep is 3-1 when Arena allows one or fewer hits, but 13-18 otherwise.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Nick Linares, who went 2-for-3 with one home run, six RBI, and two runs. He is becoming a predictor of Payton College Prep's success: when he posts at least three RBI the team is undefeated (and 10-19 when he doesn't). Another player making a difference was Derek Patton, who went a perfect 2-for-2 with three RBI, two runs, and one double.

Payton College Prep always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .593. The last time their OBP was this high was back in May of 2024.

Payton College Prep has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 16-19 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 10.3 runs over those games. As for Thornridge, they dropped their record down to 1-20 with the defeat, which was their 13th straight on the road dating back to last season.

As of now, neither Payton College Prep nor the Falcons have any future games scheduled.