St. Mary’s Crusaders Softball Update Submitted by Mrs. D. (Coach Diane Dahlin)
Our St. Mary's Crusaders were in great form for our games on Monday, July 25 with St. Francis! Our first inning started off with a walk and two strike-outs, but then our bats kicked in, scoring 5 runs. We held the Tigers scoreless in their first inning. In the 2nd inning, we scored with a solo homerun from Matt St. Claire - an out-of-the-park homer! This was the FIRST homer over the fence that I have seen from any team in our youth league in all the years I have been coaching! So exciting! The Tigers scored 2in the 2nd, narrowing the score. The Tigers kept us scoreless in the 3rd, and we also held the Tigers in the 3rd inning. Our Crusaders added 4 more runs to our score in the 4th inning, and were able to keep St. Francis from scoring. We added 2 more runs in the 5th, and were able to shut down the Tigers to take the game by a score of 12 to 2. Those Crusaders contributing to our batting success were Anna St. Claire, Grant Johnson, Caleb Lage, Dustin Hoffart, Gunner Cadreau, Matt St. Claire, Ty Kamletz and Trinity St. Claire. Our 2nd game on July 25 began with a scoreless 1st inning for both teams. We started up the bats again in the 2nd inning, scoring 5 runs on a double from Matt St. Claire, singles from Grant Johnson and Ethan Reineke, a double from Caleb Lage, a triple from Gunner Cadreau and a single from Josh St. Claire. We held the Tigers scoreless. The 3rd inning saw hits from John Loh, Ty Kamletz, Kaylee Berg, Matt St. Claire, and Trinity St. Claire, which added 3 more runs. Again, we were able to hold St. Francis. Our 4th Inning was more bats! A triple from Caleb Lage, a single from Dustin Hoffart, and an out-of-the-park (for the 2nd time that night!) 3-run homer from Gunner Cadreau, followed by 2 walks and a single-turned-triple from Zach Hoffart, scoring 2 runs, added 5 more runs to our score. We were able to keep the Tigers scoreless in the 4th. Our Bats continued in the 5th inning, with hits from Anna St. Claire, a couple walks, singles from Trinity St. Claire and Grant Johnson and a double from Caleb Lage gave us another 5 runs. St. Francis tried valiantly to come back, but we held them once more to take the game by a score of 18 to 1. These were some of the most exciting games that we have played - when all of the players put their efforts together and were able to string the runs into hits! So much fun to watch their skills increase as the season goes on! Our Crusaders'' games on August 1st were with St. Joe's Team #2, whom we had not faced yet this season. We started our 1st inning with a string of hits from Anna St. Claire, Ty Kamletz, Braedyn Aubrey, Josh St. Claire, Trinity St. Claire and Grant Johnson sending 4 runners across home plate and taking the lead early in the game. St. Joe's answered back with 3 runs of their own. St. Joe's held us in the 2nd inning, while adding 1 run to their score to tie the game at 4. The 3rd, 4th and 5th innings were a stand-off, each team holding their opponent to zero scoring. The Joey's jumped in with 4 runs in the 6th to take the lead. We answered in the 7th inning with one run, but it wasn't enough to take the game, and we lost by a score of 8 to 5. 8-2-22 Our 2nd game with St. Joe's was a tough one as well. They scored 4 runs in the 1st, while holding us scoreless. Each team held the other with no scores in the 2nd. We were able to hold St. Joe's scoreless in the 3rd, while we scored 1 run in the 3rd inning when Gunner Cadreau sent Ethan Reineke across the plate. The Joey's added 4 more runs to their score in the 4th inning while they held us scoreless. The Joey's put 5 more runs on the board in the 5th, while our Crusaders continued to struggle without scoring. In the 6th inning, St. Joe's scored 2 more runs. Our Crusaders fought back and were able to score 1 last run in the 6th, but it wasn't enough. St. Joe's took the 2nd game by a score of 15 to 2. The last games for the season will be on Monday, August 8th. This will be our 3-game tournament, with games at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30p at the North Softball Complex on Hwy 81 north. All are welcome to cheer on our Crusaders one more time in 2022! Let's play ball!

St. Mary’s Crusaders Softball Update Submitted by Mrs. D. (Coach Diane Dahlin) Our St. Mary's Crusaders played their last games on Monday, August 8 - a round-robin tournament with all teams. Our 1st game was with St. Joe's Team #2. Our bats were slow getting started and they held us scoreless for the first 3 innings. The Joey's scored 1 run in the first inning, we held them in the 2nd, but let them score 5 runs in the 3rd inning. So we had to play some catch-up ball. We scored our first run in the 4th inning. But we came back with 5 runs in the 5th inning, stringing our singles together to get some runners across the plate! And the game was tied!! However, St. Joe's answered with 5 more runs in the 5th to offset our own runs, and we couldn't come back in the 6th inning. We took the 11 to 6 loss to a great opponent! We played St. Francis Tigers in the 2nd game. Right out of the shute, the Tigers scored 4 runs in the 1st inning. But our Crusaders got the bats going earlier with 2 runs in the 2nd inning. Both the Tigers and the Crusaders added another run in the 3rd inning. With the score 3 to 5, our Crusaders needed to get some runs. They rose to the challenge in the 4th inning and scored 3 more to take the lead. We were able to hold the Tigers scoreless for the rest of the game and took a 6 to 5 win! Our 3rd game was with St. Joe's Team #1. They jumped out ahead in the 1st inning, scoring 3 runs against our 0. But our Crusaders answered with 4 runs in the 2nd on an "almost" home run from Caleb Lage (he was out at home plate as he stumbled and had to pick himself up from the dust) with the bases loaded to take the lead. We added 2 more runs in the 3rd for insurance. The Joey's were able to pull out 5 runs against us in the 4th inning, but we came back with 3 more of our own with a triple from Matt St. Claire, a double from Grant Johnson and a triple from Caleb Lage to get some runners home. This put us still in front with a score of 9 to 8. The Joey's came out in the 5th inning with 2 runs to take the lead from us. We could not get our runners home in the 5th inning, and ended the game with a 10 to 9 loss. All of our tournament games were exciting ones to watch and we played very well—taking 2 nd place in the league—in spite of the scores! We had so much fun playing that night and we had a good crowd of fans to cheer us on also - THANK YOU!! It has been a privilege to be a part of the Crusaders softball each summer for so many years. I thank you for the opportunity and your support of our youth!