Baseball Game Preview: Mountain View Bruins vs. Payson Lions

Mountain View is 2-8 against Payson since April of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Monday. Mountain View will head out on the road to take on Payson at 3:30 p.m. Mountain View is strutting in with some hitting muscle as they've averaged 7.4 runs per game this season.

Having struggled with three losses in a row, Mountain View turned things around against Timpview on Friday. They came out on top against the Thunderbirds by a score of 8-1 (the very same score they lost by in their prior game). Considering the Bruins have won four contests by more than six runs this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.

Johnny Perkins spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on seven hits. He has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in three consecutive appearances.

Jack Akin

Runs

03/17/25 @ Summit Academy	3
03/28/25 @ Timpview	2
03/14/25 vs Hunter	2
03/03/25 vs American Leadership Academy	2
03/25/25 vs Skyridge	1
+ 1 more games

On the hitting side, the team relied heavily on Jack Akin, who scored two runs while going 2-for-4. Mountain View is 3-1 when Akin posts two or more runs, but 3-5 otherwise.

Meanwhile, Payson was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their fourth straight defeat. They lost 13-2 to Timpanogos. That's two games in a row now that the Lions have lost by exactly 11 runs.

Payson saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Blane Christensen, who went 1-for-2 with one RBI.

Payson's loss dropped their record down to 4-8. As for Mountain View, the victory got them back to even at 6-6.

Everything went Mountain View's way against Payson in their previous matchup back in May of 2024, as Mountain View made off with an 11-1 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Mountain View since the squad won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.