Baseball Game Preview: Hazel Park Vikings vs. New Haven Rockets

The Hazel Park Vikings will head out on the road to square off against the New Haven Rockets at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. One thing working in Hazel Park's favor is that they have posted at least ten runs in their last five games.

Hazel Park will bounce into Monday's matchup after beating Sterling Heights, who they had gone 0-3 against in their three prior meetings. The Vikings never let the Stallions get on the board and left with a 10-0 win on Thursday. The Vikings might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won seven contests by nine runs or more this season.

The team relied heavily on Temar Small, who got on base in three of his four plate appearances with four stolen bases, one run, and one RBI. Those four stolen bases gave him a new career-high. Zay Justice also deserves some recognition as he brought in his first RBI of the season.

Meanwhile, New Haven fought the good fight in their extra-innings game against Clawson on Friday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Trojans by a score of 4-3. The matchup marked the Rockets' lowest-scoring contest so far this season.

New Haven saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Kaden Gilbert, who went 1-for-4 with three stolen bases and one RBI. With that strong performance, Gilbert is now averaging an impressive 1.2 stolen bases per game.

Hazel Park is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight games. That's provided a nice bump to their 7-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 13.1 runs over those games. As for New Haven, they now have a losing record of 2-3.

New Haven's pitching crew has a crucial task ahead of them: Hazel Park hasn't had any issues making contact this season, having earned a batting average of .377. It's a different story for New Haven, though, as they've only averaged .252. Will they be able to contain Hazel Park's hitters?

Hazel Park might still be hurting after the 17-0 defeat they got from New Haven in their previous meeting back in May of 2024. Can the Vikings avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.