The Christian Patriots will be taking part in a tournament against the El Capitan Vaqueros at 3:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams each escaped (but just barely!) with wins against their previous opponents.
Christian proved they can win big on Monday (they won by nine) and on Wednesday they proved they can win the close ones too. They narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past Monte Vista 6-5. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest win the Patriots have posted since March 20, 2024.
Landan (LJ) Rook looked comfortable as he pitched four innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off five hits.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Maximus Villalva, who scored two runs while going 2-for-3. Roman Gustin was another key player, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 1-for-2.
Christian was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .458. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Monte Vista only posted a batting average of .296.
Meanwhile, El Capitan can bid farewell to their four-game losing streak dating back to last season thanks to their game on Wednesday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 5-4 victory over Santa Fe Christian.
El Capitan also got a great performance from Landon Harbach as he kept things locked down with no earned runs or hits over 4.1 innings pitched. The dominant performance also gave Harbach a new career-low in walks (zero).
On the hitting side, El Capitan's win was truly a team effort as four different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Emilio Fearn - Flores, who scored two runs while going 1-for-2.
El Capitan pushed their record up to 1-1 with the victory, which was their fourth straight at home dating back to last season. The wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 7.5 runs over those games. As for Christian, their win bumped their record up to 2-0.
Christian came up short against El Capitan in their previous meeting back in March of 2019, falling 5-2. Can Christian avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
