Baseball Game Preview: Salem Hills Skyhawks vs. Villa Park Spartans

The Salem Hills Skyhawks will venture away from home to face off against the Villa Park Spartans at 3:15 p.m. on Monday. Salem Hills is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 7 runs per game this season.

Salem Hills easily dispatched Carbon last Thursday, but unfortunately both the margin and the ultimate result were a different story in this one. Salem Hills fell just short of Pacifica by a score of 8-6 on Saturday. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest defeat the Skyhawks have suffered since May 21, 2024.

Kaleb DeGraffenried

Hits (Career)

03/29/25 @ Pacifica	2
03/20/25 @ Carbon	1
03/17/25 @ Alta	1
05/21/24 vs Maple Mountain	1
03/22/24 vs Skyridge	1

Kaleb DeGraffenried made the most of his time at bat despite the final result and scored a run and stole a base while going 2-for-4. Those two hits gave him a new career-high.

Meanwhile, Villa Park beat Laguna Beach 8-4 on Saturday.

Val Lopez looked comfortable as he pitched 3.1 innings while giving up no earned runs off three hits.

At the plate, Villa Park let Jake Nobles and Dominic Gutierrez run wild. Nobles went 3-for-4 with three RBI and two doubles, while Gutierrez scored two runs while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. The team also got some help courtesy of Gunner Santillo, who scored two runs while getting on base in two of his four plate appearances.

Salem Hills' loss dropped their record down to 2-5. As for Villa Park, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five games. That's provided a nice bump to their 10-4 record this season.