“We did a good job, especially in that seventh inning, offensively, taking advantage of a few mistakes on their end,” Oakes said. “But that was a quality game against a good team.”

The Benilde-St. Margaret’s (7-2, 3-1) offense had averaged more than 10 runs per game heading into Tuesday’s showdown with New Prague. But Giesen held those bats to just five hits, all of which happened before the bottom of the fifth inning.

“I tried to keep the ball down so they weren’t hitting the ball too hard and get outs where we can, and my team behind me made plays,” Giesen said.

One feature of this year’s fast-starting New Prague squad is its roster filled with upperclassmen. The roster features at least 14 seniors, with an additional trio of juniors. While this would be a large class for most high school teams, last year’s Trojans roster featured at least 11 seniors.

“There are a lot of guys who love baseball and have talent, too,” said Oakes about the area around New Prague. “We’ve had big seniors classes, and we kind of expect those guys to step up when it is their senior year. It hasn’t really been any different this year.”

For opposing Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Tuesday’s loss did not fully cloud a winning start to the spring. Both of this year’s losses have come against state-ranked teams St. Thomas Academy and New Prague, and the Trojans have averaged more than nine runs per game with the bats.

Head coach Andy Judkins said the Red Knights are also hopeful to get Easton Breyfogle back in the lineup for an upcoming game. The senior and University of Arizona baseball commit has missed more than a week’s worth of games due to injury.

“At the end of the day, I think we play hard,” Judkins said. “And that’s all you can ask from them, and I think it relays over to the amount of runs and how we play, and wins. We’re moving in the right direction.”