Baseball Recap: Village Christian Comes Up Short

Village Christian had lost four straight at home, but on Thursday they dropped down to 4-8 to make it five. They took a 9-4 hit to the loss column at the hands of Valley Christian. Crusaders fans who chose to attend the game sure picked the wrong one: it was the first time the team has lost against Valley Christian since Thursday.

Village Christian saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Ethan Rodriguez, who went 1-for-3 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one run.

As for Valley Christian, they are on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 6-4 record this season. The victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 12.8 runs over those games.

On Valley Christian's side, Max Douglas was a major factor while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching five innings while giving up just one earned (and two unearned) runs off two hits. The dominant performance also gave Douglas a new career-high in strikeouts (five). He was also solid in the batter's box, going 3-for-4 with two RBI, one run, and one double. He has become a key player for Valley Christian: the team is undefeated when he posts at least three hits, but 3-4 otherwise.

In other batting news, Nico Villafana and Cole Hefner did most of the damage at the plate: Villafana got on base in three of his five plate appearances with one stolen base, one run, and one RBI, while Hefner went 2-for-4 with one stolen base, two RBI, and one run. Hefner is on a roll when it comes to stolen bases, as he's now snagged at least one in each of the last three games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Quintin Ekstrom, who went 1-for-4 with two runs and one stolen base.

While Village Christian had to take the loss, they won't have to wait long to give it another shot: the pair's next game is a rematch scheduled at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.