The Sotomayor Wolves will take on the Sherman Oaks CES Knights at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Sotomayor sitting on nine straight victories and Sherman Oaks CES on three.
Sotomayor can't be too worried about heading out to take on Sherman Oaks CES: they just beat Maywood CES at home, who had been dominant on their own field up to that point. Sotomayor came out on top against Maywood CES by a score of 3-0 on Thursday.
Sotomayor's win was truly a team effort as seven different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Anthony Duarte, who went 1-for-2 with a double.
Meanwhile, with a playoff game on the line, Sherman Oaks CES rose to the challenge on Tuesday. They blew past the Lancers 11-5. Sherman Oaks CES might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team's won seven games by six runs or more this season.
Nicholas Bilicic made a splash while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he struck out seven batters over five innings while giving up just one earned run off two hits. Bilicic has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in three consecutive pitching appearances. Bilicic was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring three runs and stealing five bases while getting on base in three of his five plate appearances.
In other batting news, Sherman Oaks CES got a massive performance out of Judah Sapong, who scored two runs and stole five bases while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances. Sapong hasn't dropped below two stolen bases for three straight games. Another player making a difference was Liam Clinger, who scored two runs and stole four bases while going 2-for-5.
Sotomayor pushed their record up to 14-2 with that victory, which was their fourth straight on the road. As for Sherman Oaks CES, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 12-6-1 record this season.
Sotomayor came out on top in a nail-biter against Sherman Oaks CES in their previous meeting back in February, sneaking past 6-4. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Bilicic, who struck out 16 batters over 5.2 innings while giving up just two earned (and two unearned) runs off three hits. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Sotomayor still be able to contain Bilicic? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
