Baseball Game Preview: River City Raiders vs. Vanden Vikings

River City is preparing for their first league matchup of the season on Tuesday. They will host the Vanden Vikings at 4:00 p.m. River City will aim to continue their three-game streak of scoring more runs each match than the last.

Last Thursday, River City made easy work of Dixon and carried off a 12-2 victory. The Raiders might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won four contests by six runs or more this season.

Aiden Brookins looked comfortable as he didn't allow a single earned run and allowed only one hit over four innings pitched. What's more, he gave up only one walk, the fewest he's had since back in April of 2024.

On the hitting side, River City let Noah Carrington and Tanner Mayberry run wild. Carrington went 1-for-2 with two runs and one triple, while Mayberry scored three runs and stole a base while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances. That's the most runs Mayberry has posted since back in April of 2024. The team also got some help courtesy of Isiah Machado, who scored a run while going 1-for-1.

River City was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .381. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Dixon only posted a batting average of .250.

Meanwhile, Vanden was not able to break out of their rough patch on Saturday as the team picked up their third straight defeat. They came up short against Del Oro, falling 9-3. That's two games in a row now that the Vikings have lost by exactly six runs.

River City pushed their record up to 7-2 with the win, which was their third straight on the road. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 1.7 runs on average over those games. As for Vanden, their loss dropped their record down to 2-5.

River City skirted past Vanden 3-1 in their previous matchup back in February of 2024. Does River City have another victory up their sleeve, or will Vanden turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.