Crusaders can't get past ECA Bobcats

Grace Christian baseball advertises that it offers a college-like environment for players interested in joining the program, and this has attracted many highly-rated prospects to the Crusaders since former MLB pitcher Rob Wooten took over the program two years ago.Because of this, the Crusaders have no fear of punching above their weight, and testing themselves against any team that wants to come play them.Monday night saw such a team arrive at Crusader Park.

Grace visited the Eastern Carolina Academy Bobcats back on April 3 and lost to them by one run at the C35 complex owned by Wooten in Goldsboro.

ECA is not a school team, but one that features both high school athletes and post-graduate players.

They returned the visit for Graces Military Appreciation Night and topped the Crusaders 9-2.Grace (15-6 overall), which is tuning up for its defense of the NCISAA 3A state championship, faced the homeschool powerhouse Wake County Warriors in a late Tuesday game, and then host Combine Academy, a baseball prep school team on the IMG Academy model, in a Saturday doubleheader.

Three more games against conventional school opponents will follow in the final week of the regular season.In the game, neither team scored in the first inning, but the Bobcats got to Grace pitcher Luke Roupe in the second, turning three hits and two walks into three runs.

In the meantime, Grace was getting runners on base against ECA hurler Gabe Adams, who will pitch for the University of Mount Olive next season.

In the second Adams had an odd inning where he hit Nolan Harper and Connor Howard back-to-back with one out, but then struck his way out of it.Roupe got into more trouble in the fourth, and his defense didnt help by committing an error that ultimately led to two additional runs scoring after one was already in, and put the Crusaders into a 7-0 hole.

Another error led to an unearned run charged to Jaxon Wade and made it 8-0 going to the bottom of the fifth.Roupe got Grace on the board with a leadoff homer in the Crusaders half of the inning.

The Bobcats scored in the top of the sixth for a 9-1 lead.In the bottom of the seventh, Jimmy Alfonsin and Alex Pena Jimenez led off with back-to-back singles, the latter driving in the former.Grace had just five hits in the game, two each by Roupe and Pena.

Wesley Clewis and Matt Murchison each walked twice, and Clewis also got hit by a pitch to reach base three times, matching Pena..

This article has been shared from the original article on yahoo, here is the link to the original article.