The Johnson Crusaders will head out on the road to challenge the Westfield Blue Devils at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Last Tuesday, Johnson came up short against Dayton and fell 9-4. Johnson has struggled against Dayton recently, as their game on Tuesday was their fourth consecutive lost matchup.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Westfield, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Tuesday. They walked away with a 5-2 win over New Providence on Wednesday.
Tomas Cestero was a major factor while hitting and pitching. He looked comfortable on the mound, pitching seven innings while giving up just two earned runs off three hits. Cestero has been consistent recently: he hasn't pitched less than five innings in three consecutive pitching appearances. Cestero was also big at the plate, scoring a run while going 2-for-3.
In other batting news, Aaron Ives was excellent, scoring two runs while going 3-for-3.
Johnson's defeat dropped their record down to 5-12. As for Westfield, they pushed their record up to 13-3 with that victory, which was their 11th straight at home dating back to last season.
Johnson suffered a grim 11-1 defeat to Westfield when the teams last played back in April. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Westfield's Jack Chavez, who struck out nine batters over 5.2 innings while giving up just one earned run off four hits. Now that Johnson knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
