St. Brendan Allows No Hits But Gets A Loss

It’s rare when it happens, but St. Brendan allowed no hits to Coral Springs Christian in a make-up game Monday afternoon but ended up falling to the Crusaders 3-1 despite a strong pitching performance by Matthew Diaz.

In what will be the first of many afternoons in which the Crusaders will host more than a dozen scouts to watch starting pitcher Touki Toussaint, CS Christian was able to grab a few runs without the benefit of a hit. The Crusaders used some timely at-bats and the right arms of Toussaint, Colin Taylor and Eric Hepple to run their record to 3-0 on the young season.

Last week, Toussaint was rusty in his preseason start against Palm Beach Central, but on Monday, the rust had worn away, and all that was left was a dominant pitcher. The Crusaders’ ace went four innings, allowing no hits and striking out 10. Although he was pulled after the fourth with CS Christian nursing a 2-0 lead, Toussaint had no issues with coming out with a no-hitter.

“I didn’t even know I had a no-hitter at the time,” said Toussaint. “I just knew we were locked in a tight game, and I was on a pitch count before the game, so to me it didn’t matter, especially with the guys coming in behind me and doing the job.”

Those guys were Taylor and Hepple. Taylor took over for Toussaint in the fifth, and as he has done so far in all three Crusaders games, he shut down the opposing team’s offense with an assortment of pitches. Hepple relieved Taylor in the seventh with the Sabres threatening and struck out the final batter of the game to earn the save. Although Toussaint may have had the eye of the scouts, it was Taylor who impressed Manager Matt Cleveland.

“Touki, that’s just what he is when he is locked in,” said Cleveland, when asked about Toussaint’s dominant performance. “And Colin, he has been great for us out of the bullpen so far. I can’t say enough for what it means to have someone like Colin who can come in and pick up right where our starters leave off.”

Diaz was matching Toussaint pitch for pitch through four innings. The only two runs given up by Diaz were a result of errors and a couple untimely wild pitches.

“You have to tip your hat to them today,” said Sabres Manager Joe Cubas. “They scratched out a couple of runs, and there’s no question that Touki Toussaint is one of the best pitchers in South Florida. We did not make many adjustments offensively. Matt did a great job of keeping us in the ball game. He’s just coming back, and he’s one of our workhorses. His location wasn’t where he wanted to be early in the game, but he fought through it and pitched a very good game.”

The Crusaders’ second run was a big one, and it came courtesy of a sacrifice fly off the bat of catcher Benito Santiago. The ability to execute and produce a run here, a run there, is something that had Cleveland excited.

“That was huge for us today,” said Cleveland. “Our guys did a great job today, being willing to get hit by a pitch, being willing to work the counts in our favor. Even though we didn’t have any balls fall today, I think we swung the bats better than we had been so far this year.”

For St. Brendan, an 0-3 start was not what Cubas and his team had in mind.

“We are what we are right now, and we have to get it corrected,” said Cubas. “We need to start understanding that our talent alone is not going to win us ballgames. We are going to have to show more heart, and guys are going to have to step up, and I believe they will. We’ll get it going in the right direction.”

The schedule does no favors to the Sabres in their quest to rebound from a slow start. On Wednesday, district rival Key West comes to town, followed by a road tilt with Monsignor Pace on Friday night.

The Crusaders will take their perfect record to North Broward Prep tonight and close their week on Saturday hosting Zion Lutheran.

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