STAB rolls past St. Paul’s

As winners of three Virginia Independent School state titles in the last six years, the bar has been set high for the St. Anne’s-Belfield baseball team.
Off to an atypical 0-2 start, the Saints got things headed in the right direction Monday night by defeating St. Paul’s, 5-1.
“What we want the boys to do is play well whether we win or lose,” said STAB coach Alan Swanson. “But winning is a whole lot more fun.”
Starting pitcher Quinn Saunders was superb on the mound for the Saints, throwing five strong innings and giving up just one run.
“I felt good,” Saunders said. “But it was a lot easier because [assistant coach] Larry Miller called a great game. He’s been working with me on my changeup.”
Up 5-1, St. Anne’s ran into some trouble after Saunders came out in the fifth. Reliever David Spinosa loaded the bases, but recovered and retired the next three batters to preserve the Saints’ four-run lead.
In the seventh the STAB bullpen got themselves in another bind by putting runners on first and second with no outs.
Eager to wrap up the victory, Swanson brought in Kyle Long, who usually starts, to close the door.
Long delivered, striking out the side to secure the Saints’ first victory of the season.
“I was just trying to get the fastball over the plate,” Long said. “We just want to get out of the inning with a win. It’s a great feeling. You can see it looking around, all our guys are excited.”
The FSU commit also had a sound night at the plate, going 3 for 3 while stealing two bases.
STAB was aggressive on the base path, stealing five bases throughout the night.
“We’ve been struggling to score runs,” Swanson said. “We’ve got a lot of good pitching so far this year, so we wanted to make things happen. We ran a little bit, and we swung the bat. We wanted guys to be aggressive at the plate and on the bases it worked pretty well.”
The STAB offense can thank Brian Yaegle for the run support. Yaegle went 2 for 3 and drove in four runs, including a two-run homer in the first inning.
The Crusaders picked up their only run in the second when Collin Majev hit a solo home run off Saunders in the second inning. Jack Carey was a bright spot for St. Paul’s, going 3 for 3.
“We didn’t do the little things very well and that got us behind,” said Crusaders coach Paul Bernstorf. “We made two errors in the first inning and then they scored those three runs.”
In the fifth and seventh innings St. Paul’s put multiple runners in scoring position, but squandered both opportunities to but runs on the scoreboard.
“When you’re playing a team that’s equal to you, you can’t do those kinds of things,” Bernstorf said.
St. Anne’s takes on St. Alban’s today at home at 3:30 p.m.