The Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy Royals will square off against the Mentor Cardinals at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy comes in on three and Mentor on five.
Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy came out on top against Lake Catholic on Tuesday thanks in part to the team's impressive five-run seventh inning. The Royals sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 6-4 victory over the Cougars.
Kyle Shaw looked comfortable as he pitched four innings while giving up just two earned runs off four hits.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Ryan Wiehe, who went 2-for-4 with one home run and three RBI. That's the most RBI he has posted since back in April of 2024. The team also got some help courtesy of Jonah Gaudio, who went 1-for-3 with one run and one RBI.
Meanwhile, while Mentor put up some runs on Tuesday, the same can't be said for Strongsville. The Cardinals walked away with a 5-0 win over the Mustangs. That's two games straight that the Cardinals have won by exactly five runs.
Mentor also got a great performance from Peter Kennedy as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only two hits over six innings pitched. Kennedy has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in four consecutive appearances.
At the plate, Mentor saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Jack Vanhimbergen, who went 1-for-2 with two runs. Another was Josh Wieland, who got on base in two of his three plate appearances with one stolen base and one run.
Mentor's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 13-2. The home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.3 runs on average over those games. As for Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, their victory bumped their record up to 10-5.
Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy came out on top in a nail-biter against Mentor when the teams last played back in May of 2024, sneaking past 7-5. Will the Royals repeat their success, or do the Cardinals have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
