East Bakersfield can finally bid farewell to their three-game losing streak thanks to their game on Wednesday. They sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 5-3 victory over the South Spartans. For East Bakersfield, this counts as revenge for the 7-5 defeat South walked away with the last time they faced one another back in March.
Esiah Santiago spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered three earned runs on six hits. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in five consecutive pitching appearances.
On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Carlos Vela Escalera, who went 3-for-4 with three RBI.
On South's side, Josh Encinas put in work no matter where he played. On the mound, he struck out eight batters over 6.2 innings while giving up four earned (and one unearned) runs off eight hits. Encinas was also big at the plate, scoring a run and stealing two bases while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances.
Encinas wasn't the only one making solid contact as four players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Salvador Chavez, who went 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
Even though they lost, South didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with nine strikeouts. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as East Bakersfield only tossed five.
East Bakersfield's win bumped their record up to 10-13. As for South, they have not been sharp recently as the team has lost four of their last five games, which put a noticeable dent in their 10-11 record this season.
East Bakersfield will have a chance to go back-to-back against South: the pair's next game is a rematch scheduled at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
