CIF DIV. 1 BASEBALL PLAYOFFS
Millikan @ Oxnard, 3:15pm

It’s a bit of a hike up the 101 to Oxnard, but the Rams are hoping they can take the sting out of the Yellowjackets once they get there.  Out of the Pacific View, Oxnard is 18-7, and hasn’t played much local competition for comparison.

Statistically, they actually kind of resemble Millikan.  They give up very few runs (just under four a game), and average a few more.  When they’ve won against other quality teams, it’s usually by one run.  Like Millikan, they lean very heavily on their pitching, though they’ve got two aces who could take the mound on Thursday—senior Mikel Beltran and sophomore Jayson Balades have both thrown 50+ innings and are sitting under 2.5 ERA, and the Yellowjackets could throw either one of them against Millikan.  Balades is a good fastball pitcher, while Beltran is craftier, and relies on getting ground outs.

At the plate, it’s really all about junior shortstop Austin Davidson, who is .465 with 9 homeruns this year (the team has 14 total), 29 RBI and 19 extra-base hits.  The Rams will throw Josh Frye, and the story for them is the same it’s been every year—if they can score a few runs, and Frye pitches the way they’re accustomed to him pitching, they’ll be fine.  In fact, any time the Rams have scored three runs with Frye making an appearance in the game, they’ve won it—the three losses he pitched in saw the Rams shut out twice, and score just two.

If they can put up some runs (say, three), and play defense behind Frye, they could earn the unenviable task of facing bracket top-seed O. Lu next Tuesday.