Saxony edges SV in possible district preview

The Saxony Lutheran baseball team has been on a tear as of late.
In what could be a possible district tournament semifinal matchup, Saxony Lutheran edged St. Vincent 7-4 on Friday at Saxony Lutheran High School.
The victory continued its hot streak that has seen the Crusaders win 10 of their last 11 games.
“We knew this would be a tough game,” Saxony Lutheran coach Paul Sander said. I have the utmost respect for the St. Vincent program. Neither team threw their number one pitcher today, so I expected there to be a little more hitting. I think we took advantage of our opportunities.”
It has been that situational hitting that has led Saxony to what was 10 straight wins. The Crusaders fell to Charleston 7-6 in eight innings on May 6 to snap their streak. However, Sander attributes the offense to the turnaround this season that saw the Crusaders start 5-4.
“Our hitting in those tight spots where you need them has been lights out,” Sander said. “The problem is that you never know when that is going to stop. In the first nine games we didn’t hit hardly anything, and we had one game where we hit very well and just haven’t stopped. We had five starters hitting below a .200 average and now they have all grown that to at least .300.”
St. Vincent on the other hand has struggled with situational hitting at times this season.
“We get hits early in an inning and struggle to get them in,” St. Vincent coach Corey Sauer said. “The approach was better than in past games, but we had a few balls not fall and we sometimes aren’t seeing the ball well in those spots. But we will get there.”
St. Vincent missed an opportunity in the second inning as Jacob Hennemann and Tyler Hennemann had back-to-back singles with one out, but St. Vincent failed to score, but they did break through in the third.
Trevor Moonier singled to lead off the inning and kicked off four straight hits for St. Vincent. Simon Barber doubled and then Christian Schaaf and Liam Krauss drove both runners home with singles to give St. Vincent a 2-0 lead.
It wouldn’t take the Crusaders long to respond as Brayden Moore would triple to cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third.

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 drove 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.
Saxony scored all of its runs in the 3rd-5th innings.
“Saxony can swing it,” Sauer said. “We threw too many good pitches for them to hit.”
The Indians made a late surge in the game as Grant Abernathy drove in a run in the sixth and Barber doubled home a run in the seventh. The Indians brought the tying run to the plate with one out and runners on second and third, but Krauss’ line drive didn’t fall and the final batter struck out to end the game.
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. The teams combined for 23 hits in the game (12 for St. Vincent and 11 for Saxony).
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.