The Kaufman Lions will head out on the road to face off against the Van Vandals at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Kaufman sitting on three straight victories and Van on ten.
Kaufman's pitching crew heads into the match hoping to repeat the dominance they displayed on Friday. They walked away with a 3-0 win over Crandall.
Abraham Ramos
| 03/06/25 @ Forney | 9 |
| 04/11/25 vs Crandall | 8 |
| 02/21/25 vs Wilson | 8 |
| 03/21/25 @ Midlothian | 6 |
| 04/04/25 @ Corsicana | 4 |
| + 3 more games |
Abraham Ramos tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and allowing only two hits while striking out eight over six innings pitched. He is becoming a predictor of Kaufman's success: when he posts at least eight strikeouts the team is 2-1 (and 6-12-1 when he doesn't).
At the plate, Kaufman's victory was truly a team effort as three different players contributed at least one hit. One of them was Angel Montes, who scored a run while going 1-for-3. Matthew Carrillo also deserves some recognition as he brought in his first RBI of the season.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Van). Everything went their way against Kemp on Friday as they made off with an 18-1 win. Considering the Vandals have won 14 games by more than five runs this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Grady Baetz was a major factor no matter where he played. He struck out nine batters over four innings while giving up just one earned run off three hits (and only one walk). He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than nine strikeouts in four consecutive appearances. He was also stellar in the batter's box, going 2-for-5 with one home run, three RBI, and two runs. That's the most RBI he has posted since back in April of 2024.
In other batting news, Asher Hawkins and Easton Hinch did most of the damage at the plate: Hawkins scored three runs and stole a base while going 3-for-4, while Hinch went 2-for-4 with one home run, two runs, and one stolen base. What's more, Hawkins posted three RBI, the most he's had since back in April of 2024. Another player making a difference was Rawly Hinch, who went 1-for-3 with one triple, one stolen base, and two RBI.
Van hit smart and finished the game with only two strikeouts. The team has now struck out at least four batters in three consecutive contests.
Van pushed their record up to 23-6-1 with the victory, which was their eighth straight on the road. Those road wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.4 runs on average over those games. As for Kaufman, their record now sits at 8-13-1.
Kaufman came out on top in a nail-biter against Van in their previous meeting back in May of 2022, sneaking past 6-5. Will the Lions repeat their success, or do the Vandals have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
