Baseball Recap: Nine Straight Home Wins for Cardinal Newman

It's playoff time, and Cardinal Newman had no trouble coming through when it counted. They came out on top against the King's Academy Lions by a score of 5-1 on Thursday. The victory was nothing new for the Crusaders as they're now sitting on three straight.

Max Gonzalez spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on two hits and racked up 12 Ks. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than two hits in four consecutive appearances.

At the plate, the team relied heavily on James Elliot, who went 2-for-3 with two doubles, one run, and one RBI. Those two doubles gave him a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Malachi Rivas, who went a perfect 3-for-3 with one RBI.

Cardinal Newman was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .385. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their batting average total in three consecutive matchups.

Crusaders

Previous Games (Home)

04/17/25 vs King's Academy	5-1
04/07/25 vs Spanish River	4-1
04/04/25 vs Seminole Ridge	4-2
03/21/25 vs Cardinal Gibbons	4-3
03/20/25 vs American Heritage	4-3
+ 4 more games

Cardinal Newman pushed their record up to 23-3-1 with the win, which was their ninth straight at home. Those home victories came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.4 runs on average over those games. As for King's Academy, their defeat dropped their record down to 16-6.

As of now, neither Cardinal Newman nor the Lions have any future games scheduled.