The Granada Hills Charter Highlanders will take on the West Ranch Wildcats at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both teams are coming into the game red-hot, with Granada Hills Charter sitting on three straight victories and West Ranch on five.
Granada Hills Charter's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Tuesday. They had just enough and edged out Bell 2-0. That's two games straight that the Highlanders have won by exactly two runs.
Meanwhile, West Ranch beat San Marcos 7-2 on Wednesday. That's two games straight that the Wildcats have won by exactly five runs.
Hunter Manning was a major factor while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run while striking out nine over five innings pitched. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up a single earned run in four consecutive appearances. He was also big at the plate, scoring two runs while going 1-for-1. That's the most runs he has posted since back in February of 2024.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Landon Hu, who scored a run and stole a base while going 4-for-4. Those four hits gave him a new career-high. Connor Clayton was another key player, going 1-for-2 with one triple, two RBI, and one run.
West Ranch was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .481. That was just more of the same: they've now posted a batting average of .360 or higher in five consecutive contests.
West Ranch pushed their record up to 15-6 with the win, which was their 12th straight at home dating back to last season. Those home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.8 runs on average over those games. As for Granada Hills Charter, their win bumped their record up to 6-13.
Granada Hills Charter couldn't quite get it done against West Ranch in their previous matchup back in February of 2024 as they fell 5-1. Will the Highlanders have more luck at home instead of on the road? Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other baseball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
