Baseball Game Preview: Desert Mountain Wolves vs. Chaparral Firebirds

The Desert Mountain Wolves will challenge the Chaparral Firebirds at 3:45 p.m. on Monday. Desert Mountain is coming into the contest on a five-game losing streak.

Desert Mountain came into this matchup off a tough ten-run defeat on Thursday. This time they kept things ultra-competitive, but unfortunately the final result was the same. They fell just short of Horizon by a score of 6-4 on Saturday. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest loss the Wolves have suffered since April 16, 2024.

Desert Mountain saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Riyan Patel, who went 1-for-3 with one stolen base. Jonny Mszanoski also deserves some recognition as he hit his first double of the season.

Chaparral never got on the board in their matchup on Tuesday, but that sure wasn't the case in their game against Arizona College Prep last Thursday. They put the hurt on the Knights with a sharp 14-8 win.

Ryan Penney looked comfortable as he didn't allow a single earned run while striking out six over four innings pitched.

At the plate, Gavin Mesa was a standout: he went 4-for-5 with one home run, three RBI, and two runs. He has become a key player for Chaparral: the team is undefeated when he posts at least two runs, but 3-8 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Reece Solar, who scored two runs and stole a base while getting on base in three of his four plate appearances.

Chaparral kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 13 hits. That's the most hits they've posted since back in April of 2024.

Chaparral now has a winning record of 9-8. As for Desert Mountain, they now have a losing record of 9-10.

Desert Mountain was able to grind out a solid victory over Chaparral in their previous matchup back in March of 2024, winning 7-4. Will the Wolves repeat their success, or do the Firebirds have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.