Baseball Game Preview: Lutheran Crusaders vs. Rockford Christian Royal Lions

The Lutheran Crusaders will head out on the road to face off against the Rockford Christian Royal Lions at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Lutheran has five straight wins, Rockford Christian has six straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.

Lutheran will bounce into Monday's contest after beating Rock Falls, who they had gone 1-8 against in their nine prior meetings. The Crusaders came out on top against the Rockets by a score of 6-2 on Friday.

Jake Guse

Batters Struck Out (Career)

04/25/25 vs Rock Falls	5
03/18/25 @ Durand/Pecatonica	4
04/15/25 @ Rock Falls	3
03/26/25 vs Belvidere North	3

Jake Guse was a major factor while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he pitched seven innings while giving up just two earned runs off six hits. The dominant performance also gave him a new career-high in strikeouts (five). He was also solid in the batter's box, getting on base in all three of his plate appearances with one RBI.

In other batting news, Mason Villafuerte was excellent, going 2-for-4 with two stolen bases, two RBI, and one run. That's the most stolen bases he has posted since back in March. Luke Carlson was another key player, going 1-for-3 with two runs.

Meanwhile, Rockford Christian fought the good fight in their extra-innings game against Lutheran on Thursday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Crusaders by a score of 8-7.

Lutheran's victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 9-7. The home wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 7.7 runs over those games. As for Rockford Christian, they now have a losing record of 7-8.

Lutheran came out on top in a nail-biter against Rockford Christian in their previous matchup on Thursday, sneaking past 8-7. The rematch might be a little tougher for the Crusaders since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.