Baseball Game Preview: Cooper Dragons vs. Celebration Storm

The Cooper Dragons will venture away from home to challenge the Celebration Storm at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Cooper's pitching crew has only allowed 3.6 runs per game this season, so Celebration's hitters will have their work cut out for them.

Celebration will be up against a hot Cooper team: the squad just extended their winning streak to three. The Dragons had just enough and edged out Emery/Weiner 5-3.

Meanwhile, Celebration earned a 7-3 victory over Gateway on Thursday.

Dereck Velez spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned (and two unearned) runs on seven hits. He is becoming a predictor of Celebration's success: when he allows at most one earned run the team is 2-1 (and 1-6 when he doesn't).

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Daniel Heredia, who went 3-for-4 with two runs, one stolen base, and one double. He has become a key player for Celebration: the team is 2-1 when he posts at least two runs, but 1-6 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Mike Moskovitz, who went 1-for-3 with four RBI and one run.

Celebration's win bumped their record up to 3-7. As for Cooper, their victory bumped their record up to 7-5-1.