BASEBALL WINS FOURTH-STRAIGHT, PUTS UP 11 AGAINST STERLING

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Avila baseball's offense continued to shine on Friday against Sterling, picking up an 11-5 victory to win their fourth-straight game. The 11 runs also marked Avila's third-straight game putting up double-figure runs.

During Avila's four-game winning streak, the Eagles have outscored their opponents 44-26.

Avila's offense put up runs in just three innings and used quality pitching to keep Sterling at bay on a sunny day at The Z.

After leaving the bases loaded in the first, the scoring for the Eagles began in the second inning – all with two outs.

Rusten Traxler walked and after Emmanuel Ealey entered as a courtesy runner, Ealey advanced to second on a groundout by Robby Cable and would come around to score on a JJ Stubblefield single.

Tyler King answered right away with a single of his own to put two runners on base to set the table for Zach Dillman to hit the third-straight single, this time scoring Stubblefield.

Landon Vahle brought King across the plate with an RBI double for Avila's third run of the inning.

The next batter up, Ricky Dober, would walk to load the bases for Jack Virden, who would smack a two-RBI single to right field to give Avila a 5-0 lead.

In total in the second inning, Avila put up five runs on six-consecutive baserunners.

The Eagles notched two more runs up in the fourth inning on an RBI triple from Dober and an RBI single from Virden.

Through four, Avila led 7-0.

Sterling would score a run in the fifth, before Avila would put up four more in the bottom of the frame.

The bottom of the fifth started with another single from King, batting right in front of Dillman. As has been the case throughout the season, Dillman came through in a run-producing situation, blasting a two-run home run to right field.

Two batters later, Dober would match Dillman and hit a solo homer of his own to give Avila 10 runs on the day.

Immediately after Dober's home run, Virden got on base with a double to left. Will Clark produced Avila's third-straight extra-base hit to bring Virden around to score on an RBI double of his own.

Through five, Avila held an 11-1 lead.

Sterling scored four more in the sixth inning, but that is all the offense the Warriors would manage on the day as three Eagle relievers – Ryan Wingerd, Corbin Hamman and Gio Armas – threw 3.1 shutout innings to help secure Avila's 11-5 victory.

The shutdown appearance in the ninth inning was Armas' first appearance on the mound in 2025.

There were a number of stars offensively for Avila, notably Ricky Dober, who finished 3-4 with a walk and was just a double short of the cycle.

The top-five hitters in Avila's batting order went a combined 13-22 with nine runs scored, nine RBI and five extra-base hits.

Avila will celebrate Senior Day on Saturday in between the games of the doubleheader. First pitch of game one from The Z is slated for 12 PM.

 (photo credit: Albert Guerrero)