Box Score

Oakland, CA - Wade Broadstreet was not himself in Saturday's series finale against Northwest Nazarene, and the Crusaders took advantage, scoring eight runs in the fourth and adding more in every inning after that against the Urban Knights en route to a 17-1 victory. Zach Babitt went 2 for 4, and Niko Leite knocked in the only run for the Knights.

For Broadstreet, who has been very effective for the Knights so far this year, Saturday was an anomaly. The sophomore has been around the plate all year, striking out 14 and only walking right, but on Saturday it seemed that the Crusaders got hold of anything close to the plate and found a hole in the defense, racking up 21 hits against the Urban Knights pitchers.

Broadstreet's trouble started in the second. Charlie Gorzo walked to lead off the inning and stole second. Jamie Mitchell grounded out to third, and then Ben Clare struck out on three pitches and the Knights were an out away from escaping the threat unscathed. But Kaleb DeHaas singled in Gorzo to put the Crusaders on top 1-0. Broadstreet (0-3) picked off Gorzo to end the inning. On the other side of the ball, Aaron Vaughn faced nine batters and set them all down for Northwest Nazarene, striking out four on only 31 pitches.

The Crusaders got it going in the fourth when Logan Parker doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Gorzo was hit by a pitch and stole second, and Mitchell knocked in Parker with a sacrifice fly to center. Ben Clare then put down the bunt for the suicide squeeze play, but Broadstreet chose to throw home, skipping it past the catcher and allowing the run to score.

DeHaas singled again to score Clare, advancing to second on the throw home. Then Sean McDonald, Jon Matos, and Derek Bettinson hit consecutive singles. Parker, who started the inning off, grounded out, and after the Crusaders loaded the bases again, but Broadstreet stayed in and got Clare to ground out to shortstop to end the inning. The Crusaders sent 12 batters to the plate, pushing across eight runs in the inning.

Ryan Kuhn came in for Vaughn to pitch, and Zach Babitt got his first single of the day on an infield hit to the new shortstop Fernando Robles. Zach Babitt then stole second, and then Myles Babitt got him over to third on a groundout to first. Niko Leite squeezed and got Babitt in to score and the Knights were on the board.

Northwest Nazarene got runs in the fifth and sixth on two home runs, one by McDonald, and one by Robles, and after the sixth were up 14-1. They also added another in the seventh on an RBI single by Sam Cook, and two more in the ninth on another single by Cook and a wild pitch by Knights pitcher Bryce Hutchings.

McDonald had his second straight 4-for-6 day against the Knights, scoring three runs and driving in three on Saturday. Bettinson and Steele also had three-RBI games for the Crusaders, who improved to 10-3 on the season. Kallen Fletcher pitched two and two-thirds of an inning for ART U, giving up three runs on six hits.