The Gretna East Griffins will square off against the Lincoln East Spartans at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Gretna East 2.9, Lincoln East 3.1) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Gretna East fought the good fight in their extra-innings match against Millard North on Thursday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Mustangs by a score of 3-2. That's two games in a row now that the Griffins have lost by just one run.
Gretna East had to settle for second despite strong performances on the mound from Austin Copeland and Carter Woodson Copeland pitched 5.2 innings while giving up just two earned runs off seven hits, while Woodson struck out six batters over 3.2 innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits. That's the fewest earned runs Woodson has allowed since back in April of 2024.
At the plate, Gretna East saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Tanner Erdkamp, who went 1-for-4 with one stolen base and two RBI.
Meanwhile, Lincoln East strolled into their game on Thursday with a perfect record and they left with the same. Their pitchers stepped up to hand Kearney a 3-0 shutout.
Santino Arranaga looked comfortable as he didn't allow a single earned run over four innings pitched. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than one earned run any time he's pitched this season.
Lincoln East pushed their record up to 9-0 with the victory, which was their 22nd straight at home dating back to last season. Those home wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.5 runs on average over those games. As for Gretna East, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 5-3.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
