Giana Butler’s two-run double in the top of the seventh propelled the Mustangs to a convincing victory over the Bulldogs 

The John Muir Mustangs started off the Pacific League Tournament 2-0 following a convincing 6-0 victory over the Burbank Bulldogs. Giana Butler’s two-run double in the top of the seventh inning sealed the Bulldogs fate. Back on Saturday, Muir had a 10-0 mercy rule win over Glendale, and Burbank came off a 6-0 loss to Arcadia in the opening round of the tournament. In the last meeting between the two schools, Burbank narrowly beat Muir 3-1 back on Tuesday, April 22nd. 

The Mustangs got the offense going in the top of the first inning as  Butler grounded into a run-scoring double play to drive home Jaida Brown to give Muir an early 1-0 lead over Burbank. The Bulldogs had a scoring chance in the bottom of the first inning, which started with back-to-back one-out singles by Charley Barnett and Samantha Cafferty. Kayla McPherson almost started a two-out rally with an infield single to load the bases for Priscilla Sanchez, who had a chance to break the game open. Unfortunately, Sanchez struck out swinging to leave the bases loaded to end the bottom of the first inning. 

Both teams were held scoreless in the second inning, but the Mustangs added three more runs on the board in the top of the third inning as Abigail Milton recorded an RBI double to drive home Raquel Paez,and Alyssa Perez drove in two more runs with a sacrifice bunt to give Muir a 4-0 lead. The Mustangs and Bulldogs were also held without runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Giana Butler drove home Jaida Brown and Abigail Milton to give Muir a 6-0 lead in the top of the seventh to put the icing on the cake in this game. Charley Barnett, Samantha Cafferty, and Maddison Kellogg were all retired to end the game. 

“I think in this process that’s coming our way, with four to five of my players losing their homes due to the Eaton Fires, not having a home field for the rest of the season along with having games on the day of Muir’s prom, I’m proud of how my team has responded through those challenging circumstances,” said Matthew Milton. Milton also admitted that the chemistry on this Mustang team is coming together at the right time. 

“Getting on base is not the problem for us, but we just can’t produce hits with runners on base,” said Javier Rojas. Rojas admitted that the Bulldogs need to play great defense and start hitting with runners on base if Burbank wants to increase their playoff chances with an at-large entry. It will be extremely important for the next two games at Hoover High School. 

Both teams will play a second game back-to-back in the Pacific League preliminary rounds. Muir will take on Burroughs at Arcadia High School with the first pitch at 7:00 p.m., which is also a rematch from the contest back on April 1st, and Burbank will take on Hoover at 4:00 p.m., as this will also be a rematch from April 3rd.