After a hot 4-1 season start, Ayala faced their strongest opponent yet on March 10 against the #4 State-ranked 6-0 South Hill Huskies, but Ayala’s immensely superior performance exposed them.
The undefeated Southern Hills, with hopes of continuing another monumental season start, met Ayala at their home turf, who had their own hopes of continuing a two-game winning streak against the previous Damien Spartans and San Dimas.
The thought-to-be dogfight at Ayala’s field did not start as expected, with Ayala shutting down Southern Hills early on the defensive side of the field. Their defensive performance profoundly matched their offense, with Ayala jumping out to a noteworthy eight runs to nothing that continued until the third inning as South Hills made their first mark on the game.
South Hills left their initial Husky paw prints on the game by scoring two runs in the third, accompanied with Ayala slowing down with only one run. Ayala eventually picked up their earlier Bulldog energy as they scored another five runs in the fourth inning. The remarkable advantage that Ayala had is the amount of Home-runs that helped them surmount such a promising lead. Jalen Venezuela (12), Ivan Ruddell (12), and Jonah Boyd (10) all had their own home-runs. However, the opposite was true for South Hills as no one managed to launch the ball out of the stadium.
The game continued to slow down with just Ayala scoring a run in the fifth inning to South Hills’s none. This was the theme for the remainder of the game with no teams scoring. The final score ended up with Ayala being in control for the majority of the match for a result of 15-4. South Hills’s four runs came from Carson Baker (12), Gabriel Guerrero (12), and Diego Villareal (11) leading with two runs.
With Ayala defeating yet another strong opponent, their competitive drive and winning oriented instincts show them to be a strong candidate to win their Palomares League yet again and possibly a shot at winning the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section state title later this spring.
