The Valley Lutheran Chargers will square off against the Ithaca Yellowjackets at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Valley Lutheran's pitching crew has only allowed 3.9 runs per game this season, so Ithaca's hitters will have their work cut out for them.
Valley Lutheran is probably headed into the match with a chip on their shoulder considering Nouvel Catholic Central just ended the team's three-game winning streak on Monday. They fell 9-5 to the Panthers.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Ithaca). Their pitcher stepped up to hand Carson City-Crystal a 10-0 shutout on Wednesday. The win was familiar territory for the Yellowjackets, who have now won three games in a row.
Carsen Shankel made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit while striking out ten over five innings pitched. Shankel was also solid in the batter's box, going 2-for-3 with one triple and two RBI. That triple was his first of the season.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Connor McMurphy, who went 2-for-3 with one stolen base, one run, and one RBI. Another player making a difference was Colton Pratt, who got on base in two of his four plate appearances with two runs and one RBI.
Ithaca always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .545. That's the best OBP they've posted all season.
Ithaca pushed their record up to 3-7 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road. The road wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.0 runs on average over those games. As for Valley Lutheran, their loss dropped their record down to 6-2.
Valley Lutheran beat Ithaca 8-3 in their previous meeting back in April. Will the Chargers repeat their success, or do the Yellowjackets have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
