With the weather finally cooperating with the baseball season, Benilde-St. Margaret’s played its first first games in three weeks and claimed a pair of non-conference wins, downing Totino-Grace, 3-1, before taking a 10-4 win from Duluth Denfeld.

In the opener, Jimmy Cron tossed a complete-game, three-hitter in his first varsity start while adding a double and two walks in three plate appearances to lead the Red Knights to their first victory of 2013.

Cron allowed just one hit, walked one and struck out three through four scoreless, giving his team chance to get on the scoreboard first as Grant Besse led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a walk. A pair of wild pitches moved him to third base before he scored on Michael Kaminski’s sacrifice fly.

The Eagles responded by tying the game in the top of the fifth when Matt Leuty led off with a singled and, after beind sacrificed to second base, scored on Dominic Wippler’s single.

BSM wasted no time in retaking the lead as Cron led off the bottom of the fifth with a four-pitch walk and Colin Polarek came on as a courtesy runner. Dan Labosky walked one out later and Sam Lynch singled to load the bases. Keaton Studsrud then grounded to second base but Totino-Grace was unable to complete a double play.

Studsrud beat the relay throw at first base with Polarek scoring to break the 1-1 tie. He then stole second base and, with an errant throw from catcher Marco Lucarelli, Labosky raced home from third base with an insurance run.

Cron, who retired the final two batters of the fifth inning after Wippler’s RBI single, worked 1-2-3 innings in both the sixth and seventh innings to give him eight consecutive outs to end the game.

In the Red Knights’ second game of the day, they scored 10 runs in the game’s first three innings, including a seven-run second inning, en route to the 10-4 win over the Hunters.

BSM scored first in the game as Labosky doubled to lead off the first and then moved up a base on each of two outs, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Studsrud.

Denfeld, however, would come back with three runs in the top of the second inning before the Red Knights’ seven-run explosion. Chris Racchini walked to open up the inning and scored when Labosky reach on a fielding error and Sam Lynch put his team ahead for good with a two-run triple.

BSM scored two more times in the third inning on RBI singles by Studsrud and Mike McGill to take a seven-run lead, giving Dunham DeRemer a victory in his first varsity mound appearance.

In making the start for the Red Knights, DeRemer worked four innings, allowing three runs on six hits while walking two and striking out four.

Marshall Hoemke following with two innings of relief work, allowing a run on three hits and two walks while striking out three, before John Backes finished out the game by pitching a scoreless seventh in which he gave up a leadoff hit before retiring the next three batters, two by strikeouts.

Studsrud paced the office with two hits and a walk to go with three RBI. Grant Besse also had a pair of hits in BSM’s season-high 10-hit attack.

The Red Knights return to action Monday, opening the North Suburban Conference schedule with a 4:15 p.m. game versus St. Louis Park at BSM Field.

A copy of this game story and complete game statistics are available as a PDF here.