Baseball: Holy Cross forces Game 3 with 9-1 win over Purple Knights

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The Holy Cross Tigers defeated the St. Augustine Purple Knights Friday night, 9-1, in Game 2 of their best-of-three series.

“St. Aug is a talented ball club,” said Holy Cross head coach Aaron Barras. “They have good pitching, they’re aggressive at the plate, they play good defense. We had to match their energy. We had to come out and throw strikes. We had to have great at bats and battle at the plate. And they knew that.”

In the first, Dom Pellegrin grounded out to score Chris Sercovich from third to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Holy Cross would score four runs in the second inning and two in the sixth and seventh in its 9-1 win.

Ross Klein sliced one over the first baseman and down the right field line for a RBI double to make it 3-0 in the second, and Aaron Guichard’s 2-RBI single increased the lead to five.

Be sure to watch the WGNO video highlights that shows a controversial call in the third inning when St. Aug’s Bryce Robinson hit a triple that was eventually called out. WGNO’s video shows that it was not a catch.

Chris Sercovich drove in two runs on an error in the sixth, and Ryder Planchard smacked a RBI double to score two in the seventh.

The Purple Knights scored their lone run in the bottom of the fifth when Troy Brown scored on an error off Amare Cooper’s grounder.

Since the Knights won 9-6 on Thursday, the teams will face off in Game 3 on Saturday at 11 a.m. to decide who remains in the Division I Select baseball playoffs.