Baseball Game Preview: Tri-Valley Vikings vs. Deer Creek-Mackinaw Chiefs

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Previous Games

04/18/24 - Away	7-6 W
04/05/23 - Home	8-0 W
04/06/22 - Away	17-5 W
05/27/21 - Away	3-4 L
04/03/19 - Home	2-0 W
+ 5 more games

Tri-Valley has gone 8-2 against Deer Creek-Mackinaw recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Friday. The Vikings will host the Chiefs at 4:30 p.m. Given that the two teams suffered a loss in their last games, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this match.

Tri-Valley came into this matchup off a tough 13-run defeat on Wednesday. This time they kept things ultra-competitive, but unfortunately the final result was the same. They fell just short of Rantoul by a score of 4-2 on Thursday. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest loss the Vikings have suffered since May 8, 2024.

Meanwhile, Deer Creek-Mackinaw didn't have quite enough to beat Lexington on Wednesday and fell 10-9. Even though they lost, the Chiefs' still made a splash at the plate and bumped their average scoring up to 6.2 runs per game (they're now ranked -1th in scoring overall).

Deer Creek-Mackinaw got a big performance out of Chuck Hathaway, who went 2-for-4 with one run, one double, and one RBI. The team also got some help courtesy of Drew Swadinsky, who went 2-for-4 with two runs and one RBI.

This is the second loss in a row for Deer Creek-Mackinaw and nudges their season record down to 11-11. As for Tri-Valley, they have been struggling recently as they've lost three of their last four games. That's put a noticeable dent in their 11-5-1 record this season.

Tri-Valley skirted past Deer Creek-Mackinaw 7-6 in their previous meeting back in April of 2024. Do the Vikings have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Chiefs turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.