Baseball Game Preview: Lake Stevens Vikings vs. Emerald Ridge Jaguars

The Lake Stevens Vikings will take on the Emerald Ridge Jaguars at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Lake Stevens will bounce into Saturday's contest after beating Cascade, who they had gone 2-7 against in their nine prior meetings. The Vikings put the hurt on the Bruins with a sharp 12-1 victory on Friday. The result was nothing new for the Vikings, who have now won five matchups by six runs or more so far this season.

Manny McLaurin looked comfortable as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit while striking out nine over four innings pitched. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than six strikeouts any time he's pitched this season.

Blake Moser

Runs (Career)

04/18/25 @ Cascade	4
04/04/25 @ Glacier Peak	2
03/21/25 vs Burlington-Edison	2
03/30/24 vs Cascade	2
03/28/24 @ Meadowdale	2

At the plate, Blake Moser was incredible, going a perfect 3-for-3 with four runs and one stolen base. Those four runs gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Josh Bouley, who got on base in all four of his plate appearances with two runs and one stolen base.

Meanwhile, Emerald Ridge entered their tilt with Bethel on Friday with six consecutive wins, and they'll enter their next game with seven. Their pitchers stepped up to hand the Bison a 9-0 shutout.

Lake Stevens has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five games. That's provided a nice bump to their 8-4 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.4 runs on average over those games. As for Emerald Ridge, their victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 10-6.