The Gateway Eagles will face off against the Lely Trojans at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Gateway has four straight victories, Lely has five straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
On Thursday, Gateway got the win against Dunbar by a conclusive 15-1. Considering the Eagles have won 12 contests by more than five runs this season, Thursday's blowout was nothing new.
Gateway got a great performance from Brady Miller as he struck out ten batters over five innings while giving up just one earned run off one hit (and only one walk). The dominant performance also gave Miller a new career-low in walks (one).
On the hitting side, Gateway let Juan Carlos Lineras and Otniel Diaz run wild. Lineras scored two runs and stole a base while going 2-for-2, while Diaz scored a run while going 2-for-2. That's the most hits Diaz has posted since back in April of 2024. Another player making a difference was Antony Leiderman, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, Lely came up short against Cypress Lake on Monday and fell 6-1. That's two games in a row now that the Trojans have lost by exactly five runs.
Santiago Carnet was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he tossed six innings while giving up four earned (and two unearned) runs off seven hits.
At the plate, Lely saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Aiden Karl, who went 1-for-3 with one RBI.
Gateway pushed their record up to 12-4 with the win, which was their sixth straight on the road. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to hits: they averaged an imposing 10.33 hits in those games compared to only 5.2 in the others. As for Lely, their loss dropped their record down to 3-14.
Lely's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Gateway has hit smart this season, having averaged an OBP of .443. It's a different story for Lely, though, as they've only averaged .310. Will they be able to contain Gateway's hitters?
Gateway took their victory against Lely when the teams last played back in February by a conclusive 19-3. Does Gateway have another victory up their sleeve, or will Lely turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
