The Canyon Comanches will head out on the road to take on the Ayala Bulldogs at 3:15 p.m. on Friday. Both teams have allowed few runs on average, (Canyon: 3.3, Ayala: 3.1) so any runs scored will be well earned.
Canyon is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 5-4 win over Quartz Hill. Five seems to be a good number for Canyon as the team scooped up a victory with the same number of runs in their previous game.
Cohen Gomez was a major factor no matter where he played. He struck out eight batters over 5.1 innings while giving up four earned runs off six hits. Gomez has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in six consecutive pitching appearances. Gomez was also solid in the batter's box, getting on base in three of his four plate appearances with a home run.
In other batting news, Christian Tapia was excellent, going 1-for-4 with two runs, a triple, and an RBI. Johnny Lopez was another key contributor, going 2-for-4 with two RBI and a double.
Meanwhile, Ayala had already won seven in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 5.1 runs), and they went ahead and made it eight on Tuesday. Everything went their way against the Minutemen as they made off with an 11-0 win. Ayala's victory was all the more impressive since Maranatha was averaging only 3.52 runs allowed on the season.
Like Canyon, Ayala also got a great game from a two-way player: Caleb Trugman. He looked comfortable on the mound, not allowing a single earned run over seven innings pitched. Trugman was also big at the plate, scoring a run while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances.
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Elijah Duarte, who scored a run while going 4-for-4. Another player making a difference was Eric Hernandez, who scored two runs while going 1-for-3.
Canyon is on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 16-13-1 record this season. As for Ayala, they pushed their record up to 14-11-1 with that win, which was their fourth straight at home.
Canyon was able to grind out a solid victory over Ayala in their previous matchup back in April, winning 4-0. Will Canyon repeat their success, or does Ayala have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
