The Valley Center Jaguars will stay at home for another game and welcome the Morse Tigers at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Valley Center will be strutting in after a victory while Morse will be coming in after a defeat.
Valley Center is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. Everything went their way against Sweetwater as Valley Center made off with a 10-1 win.
Michael Bray made a big impact no matter where he played. On the mound, he struck out seven batters over seven innings while giving up just one earned run off five hits (and not a single walk). Bray has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than two walks in five consecutive pitching appearances. Bray was also big at the plate, scoring two runs while going 2-for-3.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Kevin Lopez, who went 1-for-3 with a triple, two RBI, and a run. Manny Lopez was another key contributor, scoring a run while going 1-for-2.
Meanwhile, Morse unfortunately witnessed the end of their eight-game winning streak on Friday. They took a 7-3 hit to the loss column at the hands of University City. Morse has struggled against University City recently, as their matchup on Friday was their fourth consecutive lost matchup.
Morse saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Marcus Westover, who went 2-for-3 with an RBI.
Valley Center is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five games, which provided a massive bump to their 15-12 record this season. As for Morse, their loss ended a five-game streak of away wins and brought them to 17-12.
The batters for both teams will have to hit smart on Saturday as both have some strikeout artists on the roster. Valley Center has been retiring batters left and right this season, having averaged 7.1 strikeouts per game. However, it's not like Morse struggles in that department as they've been averaging 7.2. Considering how easily both teams rack up Ks, the hitters on both teams better bring their A-game into this one.
Valley Center couldn't quite finish off Morse when the teams last played on Wednesday and fell 7-5. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Morse's Chris Marquez, who pitched seven innings while giving up just two earned (and three unearned) runs off ten hits. Now that Valley Center knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
