Crusaders down Indians in battle of C2D3 teams

In a battle of two Class 2 District 3 teams, the Saxony Lutheran Crusaders downed the St. Vincent Indians 7-4 on Friday at Saxony Lutheran High School.

The win marked 10 straight victories for the Crusaders.

“It’s been our offense,” Crusaders coach Paul Sander said of the keys to the streak. “Pitching has been pretty good all year. We’ve had mostly good starts. In all 10 of the wins, we’ve hit the ball well. In the first nine games, we didn’t hit the ball hard at all.”

The Indians took a lead in the top of the third when Christian Schaaf and Liam Krauss strung together back-to-back hits to give them a 2-0 lead.

It wouldn’t take the Crusaders long to respond as Brayden Moore would triple to cut the lead in half.

The next batter, Drew Hahs would single and tie the game at two.

As the Crusaders batted in the bottom of the fourth, Jace Boland stepped in with two outs and singled to start the rally for the Crusaders.

A double from Aaron Eubanks plated a pair of runs and Brayden Moore would drive in another to extend the Saxony Lead to 5-2.

Carson Birk would tack on two more runs in the bottom of the 5th to push the lead to 7-2.

“We knew this would be a battle,” Sander said. “We had a lot of hits today and they had a lot of hits today. We did a good job with our situational hitting in certain spots in a couple of innings.”

Getting the start for St. Vincent was Jake Seabaugh and he tossed three innings allowing 2 runs, both unearned, on four hits while also picking up three strikeouts.

Aaron Eubanks took the mound for the Crusaders and he would go the distance throwing seven innings, allowing 4 runs on 13 hits while striking out five.

“Eubanks is a gamer,” Sander said. “He’s a senior, he’s a first baseman and he’s a hitter. But, he’s pitching because we need him to pitch in the three or four spots. We were happy to have him throw today.”

Offensively the Indians were led by Schaaf who went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.

For the Crusaders, it was Jace Boland leading the way as he went 2-for-3 with 3 runs scored in the victory.

Brayden Moore and Drew Hahs also picked up a pair of hits each in the win for the Crusaders.

St. Vincent (11-8) will return to the diamond at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, May 8 when the Indians travel to take on Leopold (4-10).

Saxony Lutheran (15-4) has a quick turnaround as the Crusaders will be back in action at 12 p.m. on Saturday, May 6 when they hit the road to take on the Charleston Blue Jays.

“We want to keep hitting the ball,” Sander said. “If we can keep hitting the ball and we can keep scoring seven, eight, nine runs a game, we like our chances. We just have to keep grinding.”