Arlington, Va. – In its final home contest this season, the Marymount baseball squad used strong outings on the mound to down Catholic, 5-1.  The Saints improve to 16-16 on the season with the nonconference victory.

The Saints wasted no time swiping the early lead, using a leadoff double from Lorenzo Calderon to set the table.  Another double – this time from Ryan Blake – would see Calderon cross the dish for the 1-0 edge in the first inning.

While the next few frames proved silent, Marymount used another lone tally in the fourth to effectively double its advantage.  Blake burned a leadoff single to left center, setting up Ben Berczek for the Saints' third double of the day.  Blake advanced to third easily, and eventually came in to score as the Catholic left-fielder mishandled the Berczek blast.

With the 2-0 lead in tow, Marymount went back to work in the fifth.  Karlis Graubics opened the frame with a homerun to deep right, effectively denting the Catholic morale, as well as a rather ill-fated minivan.

The Cardinals seemed to crumble after the deep ball, as Jack Breheny reached on an infield error.  Following a Catholic pitching change, the Saints used back-to-back sacrifice bunts to push Breheny to third.  With two outs, Blake notched his third hit of the day – a scorcher down the left field line – to plate Breheny for the 4-0 margin. 

Catholic made its brief retort in the sixth, using a solo shot to right field to shave the deficit to three, 4-1.

Marymount negated the Cardinals lone strike in the eighth, using two hits to push across its final run.  Max Burcham was hit by pitch to kick off the frame, advancing to third on singles from Brandon Orbe and Stephen Berczek.  It was a simple groundout to the pitcher that saw Burcham cross the dish for the 5-1 edge.

In the ninth, Blake took his talents to the mound, collecting the last three outs via strikeout for the save.  Starter Dylan Gerdts (2-3) takes the decision after tossing eight innings – scattering just four hits while fanning four. 

Blake paced the offense with his 3-for-4 outing – registering two RBIs, one run scored, and a double.  Graubics followed suit at the dish – going 2-for-4 on the day with two RBIs, one run scored, and a homerun.

Marymount returns to action on Saturday when it travels to Bridgewater for its regular season finale.  Fans can follow the Saints via an online audio broadcast slated to begin with the 12:00 p.m. first pitch.