The pre-season home opener was a refreshing game for the Crusaders.  Not only were the fans able to sit and watch without bundling up to enjoy a Crusader victory, they were treated to the new antics of the Kirsch-Rooney scoreboard.  Batter's names were put on the board as they came up in the line-up and graphics flashed across the screen to accent good plays.  The field was also in good shape.  Now, to the game.

BJ Rodrigue took the mound to open up the game for the Crusaders.  In the top of the inning, as the Crusaders enjoyed being the home team for the first time this year, the opposition went three-up and three-down with three strike outs.  In the bottom of the inning, there were 4 Mandeville errors.  BJ singled to score one RBI.  The inning ended with Brother Martin on top 2 - 0.

In the 2nd inning, there was no score by either team.  Andrew Russo came up with some nice defensive plays at third.  In the 3rd inning, Mandeville scored one.  In the bottom of the inning, Thomas Keegan had nice double, but the Saders were unable to move him around.  In the top of the fourth, Mandeville was once again held scoreless.  In the bottom of the inning, BJ, the first batter, was walked.  Austin Condon came in as the courtesy runner.  Josh Radovich laid down a nice sacrifice bunt to move Austin to second. Andrew Russo was up next and worked a walk.  Ryan Berry then came up to plate and stroked a triple in the gap to right center field scoring the two men on base.  Ryan then came home on a very wild pitch that went behind the batter.  When the inning was over the Crusaders were up 5 - 1.

In the top of the 5th, Mandeville began to put some hits together and scored 2 runs on 3 hits and one Crusader error.  In the bottom of the 5th, Matt Adams and BJ Rodrigue singled, but no runs were scored.  Chip Gaillot took the mound for the 6th and 7th innings and did a very good job.  In the 6th, Chip got the Skippers three-up and three-down producing two fly outs to left where Ryan Berry made some nice catches. The Crusaders were unable to score in the bottom of the inning.  In the top of the 7th, Chip gave up only one hit with two strikeouts and a fly out.  A good opening win at home for the Brother Martin Crusaders.