Baseball Game Preview: Maplewood Rockets vs. McDonald Blue Devils

The Maplewood Rockets will face off against the McDonald Blue Devils at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Maplewood is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 7.4 runs per game this season.

Maplewood is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Wednesday. Their pitcher stepped up to hand Windham an 8-0 shutout. The victory continues a trend for the Rockets in their matchups with the Bombers: they've now won five in a row.

Gabe Erwin

Batters Struck Out

05/28/25 vs Windham	8
05/06/25 @ Harding	7
04/30/25 vs Mathews	6
04/07/25 @ Pymatuning Valley	3
04/01/25 @ Heartland Christian	2
+ 6 more games

Gabe Erwin made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he didn't allow a single earned run while striking out eight over seven innings pitched. That's the most strikeouts he has posted since back in April of 2024. He was also big at the plate, going 2-for-3 with two runs, one stolen base, and two RBI.

Erwin wasn't the only one making solid contact as four players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Coleton Logan, who got on base in all four of his plate appearances with one stolen base and one run.

Meanwhile, McDonald waltzed into their matchup on Thursday with three straight wins... but they left with four. They came out on top against the Panthers by a score of 6-3.

McDonald pushed their record up to 15-8 with the win, which was their third straight at home. The home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.0 runs on average over those games. As for Maplewood, their win bumped their record up to 14-6.

Maplewood suffered a grim 11-1 defeat to McDonald in their previous meeting back in April of 2023. Can the Rockets avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.