The Village Christian Crusaders will take on the Brentwood School Eagles at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The last five games Village Christian has played have been within two runs, so don't be surprised if it's a close one.
Having struggled with five defeats in a row, Village Christian turned things around against Whittier Christian on Friday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand the Heralds a 1-0 shutout. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest victory the Crusaders have posted since March 7th.
Not much got past Ryan French, who gave up just two hits and racked up seven Ks to keep Whittier Christian off the board.
On the hitting side, Village Christian saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Dallas Young, who went 1-for-3 with one run and one double.
For whatever reason, it's the away team that's had the advantage when Brentwood School and Viewpoint meet (two straight games heading into this one) and that held true again on Thursday. The Eagles blew past the Patriots 8-0.
Dean Hoshide made a splash while hitting and pitching. He didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits while striking out ten over seven innings pitched. He also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because Brentwood School is 2-1 when he allows at most one earned run, but 8-10 otherwise. Hoshide was also solid in the batter's box, going 3-for-4 with two runs and one stolen base. Those three hits gave him a new career-high.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Beckett Hoffman, who went 2-for-4 with two RBI, one run, and one double. Those two RBI gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Sam Russakoff, who earned one RBI, two runs, and one stolen base.
Brentwood School has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches. That's provided a massive bump to their 10-11 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.0 runs on average over those games. As for Village Christian, their victory bumped their record up to 10-11.
Village Christian was able to grind out a solid win over Brentwood School in their previous meeting back in May of 2024, winning 8-4. Do the Crusaders have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Eagles turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
