The Rancho Mirage Rattlers will head out to challenge the Banning Pilots at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Rancho Mirage 3.8, Banning 2.2) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Rancho Mirage is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They came out on top against Ramona by a score of 7-3.
Zachary Berntsen spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered three earned runs on nine hits and racked up eight Ks.
At the plate, the team relied heavily on Edward Carlin, who went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, one run, and one RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Kobee Finnikin, who went 1-for-2 with two runs and one double.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Banning, who bounced back after a loss on the road two weeks ago. They skirted past Lemoore 3-2.
AJ Herrera was a major factor no matter where he played. On the mound, he tossed four innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off two hits. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in three consecutive appearances. He was also big at the plate, getting on base in all four of his plate appearances with two RBI.
Herrera wasn't the only one making solid contact as four players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Pedro Ibanez-Eddy, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with one run.
Rancho Mirage has been performing well recently as they've won ten of their last 12 matches. That's provided a massive bump to their 19-13 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.4 runs on average over those games. As for Banning, their win was their seventh straight at home, which pushed their record up to 23-9.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
