The Crusader baseball team (4-5) had a successful and exciting weekend winning three out of four games. Brother Martin started the weekend off with a 10-0 loss to Byrd. Chase Dolly went 2-2 at the plate, but Byrd never surrendered the lead after the fourth inning to secure the win.
The rest of the weekend would be a different story. After frigid temperatures on Thursday, the Crusaders just needed a little sunshine to get things going. The Crusaders jumped out to an early lead on Mandeville and captured a 10-0 victory on Friday at Farley Field. The game was decided quickly as Brother Martin exerted its will early scoring seven runs in the first three innings.
The first game of a Saturday double-header was much like Friday’s outcome. The Crusaders jumped out to an early lead on Hahnville to capture a 10-0 victory at John Ryan Stadium. Six runs in the first three innings allowed Brother Martin to put the game away early.
Senior Corey Gaconi held Hahnville scoreless for all five innings he was on the hill. Gaconi allowed no runs on four hits while striking out four.
Excitement was everywhere in game two of Saturday’s double-header. Sophomore Andre Roevens’s walk-off ground out boosted Brother Martin Crusaders Varsity to a 13-12 win over St. Thomas More in a 12 innings game lasting five hours.Each team blasted the other’s pitching combining for 25 total runs and 23 hits during the game.
St. Thomas More jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the top of the second and tacked on another run in the top of the fourth. Brother survived St. Thomas More’s surge and put up seven runs of its own in the fourth. The Crusaders scored on a two-run single by Jarod Tassin, a hit-by-pitch, and walks by Jonathan Parker, Michael Kirsch, Chase Dolly, and Joel Bergeron.
Nationally ranked St. Thomas More would answer back with a 4 run fifth inning, but the Crusaders countered with a 3 run inning of their own to make the score 10-9 Crusaders.
St. Thomas More scored one run in each of the sixth, seventh, and twelfth innings.
Brother Martin answered as it scored one run of its own in the seventh on an RBI single by Bergeron. The Crusaders matched St. Thomas More’s strong twelfth inning with a two-run inning of its own scoring on a groundout by Bergeron and a groundout by Roevens.
Doug Fair recorded the win for the Crusaders allowing one run over three innings. Fair struck out three, walked one and gave up three hits.
Blair Frederick, Michael Kirsch, Joel Bergeron and Chase Dolly helped lead the Crusaders. They combined for nine hits and eight RBIs.
