The St. Bede Bruins will face off against the Parkview Christian Academy Falcons at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (St. Bede 3.1, Parkview Christian Academy 4) so any runs scored will be well earned.
St. Bede's usually-dominant pitching crew will be looking to make up for Thursday's struggle, when Dwight hitters got past them. The Bruins came up short against the Trojans on Thursday, falling 11-3. For those keeping track at home, that's the biggest loss the Bruins have suffered since May 3, 2024.
St. Bede saw seven different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Gus Burr, who went 2-for-3 with one run and one double. AJ Hermes also deserves some recognition as he scored his first run of the season.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Parkview Christian Academy). Their pitchers stepped up to hand Hiawatha a 20-0 shutout on Thursday. The result was nothing new for the Falcons, who have now won five games by six runs or more so far this season.
Matthew Busch made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he pitched two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. He is becoming a predictor of Parkview Christian Academy's success: when he allows at most two hits the team is undefeated (and 2-3-1 when he doesn't). Busch was also stellar in the batter's box, firing off two home runs and five RBI while going 2-for-3.
In other batting news, Christian Mulder and Alex Donelson did most of the damage at the plate: Mulder went a perfect 3-for-3 with three runs, one triple, and one stolen base, while Donelson went 2-for-3 with three stolen bases, two runs, and two RBI. That's the most runs Mulder has posted since back in April of 2024. Another player making a difference was Crew Staudacher, who went 1-for-2 with two runs, one stolen base, and two RBI.
Parkview Christian Academy kept the outfield on their toes and finished the game with 13 hits. That's the most hits they've managed all season.
Parkview Christian Academy has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven contests. That's provided a massive bump to their 6-3-1 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.4 runs on average over those games. As for St. Bede, their defeat was their first in the conference, dropping their conference record down to 5-1 and their overall record down to 12-2.