After dropping the first two games of the season, the Warrenton baseball team rattled off six straight victories. 

Monday, the Warriors avenged their opening day loss to St. Dominic, defeating the Crusaders 5-0.

Head Coach Eric Burle said his team has heated up offensively, but the pitching staff has made some gains as the season wears on. The winning pitcher in Monday’s game — Payton Holstine — tossed a complete-game, four-hit shutout.

“Our defense, and especially our pitching, has been huge,” Burle said. “We haven’t allowed very many runs in our last six games — we’re allowing on average about two to three runs a game — so we’ve really cleaned up our defense and our pitching has been really great for us.”

The Warriors got on the board early in the game, capitalizing on St. Dominic’s Kyle Predergast’s slow start on the mound. After Trent McGee took the first pitch of the game up the middle for a single, Garrison Hibbs and Alex Vogt were hit by pitches to load the bases. Chris Vogt hit into a double play, but it scored McGee for the first run of the game.

Warrenton took advantage of the opportunities it was given offensively, often taking Predergast deep into counts. The Warrior offense had 10 hits on the day. 

Burle said going into the season he was confident in the team’s offensive prowess, and so far it has proved him right.

“In our last couple of games, we probably hadn’t had the best mindset at the plate. We had a lot of strikeouts. The guys really want to attack pitches early in the count and it’s gotten us a lot of really timely hits,” Burle said.

The Crusaders posed a slight threat in the bottom half of the first inning, with two hits to put runners on first and second base with two outs. Holstine got himself out of the jam with his first of three strikeouts of the game. The junior got stronger as the game progressed, allowing just two more hits in the contest and walking two. 

Warrenton’s Eli Ecton started the top of the second inning with an infield single. He later scored when McGee ripped a double down the right field line to make the score 2-0. McGee has had a hot bat for the Warriors as of late, and the game against St. Dominic was no exception. The senior had two hits and an RBI on the day.

The Warriors got some insurance runs in the top of the fourth inning.  

Hunter Sherman started the inning with a single to right field to start things off for Warrenton. He advanced to second base on McGee’s sacrifice bunt. Garrison Hibbs was hit by a pitch to put two runners on for Alex Vogt, whose fly ball bounced off the center fielder’s glove to help score Sherman for the third run of the game. After Chris Vogt drew a walk to load the bases, Braden Lawson got a blooper to fall to score Hibbs. Cody Herzog, Lawson, McGee and Alex Vogt all had RBIs in the game.

After Monday, Alex Vogt led the team in hits (15) and batting average (.577) so far this season.  The senior had multiple hits in six of the Warrior’s first eight games this season and had at least one hit in all eight games. 

The final run of the game came an inning later when Ecton drew a walk to start the inning. The senior scored on Cody Herzog’s double down the left field line. 

“I think those first two games of the season were just a matter of defensive miscues, and we actually have hit the ball pretty well,” Burle said. “We avenged a loss against these guys in the first game of the season and I think the guys were aware of that and really wanted to come out strong.”

The win put Warrenton at 6-2 on the year, and the Warriors host Hermann Friday.