First Baptist’s baseball team faced its toughest contest of the young season Friday afternoon. With 10 runs in the last two innings, the Crusaders still won 11-1 against visiting Bethel Christian Academy from North Carolina at the Crusader home field along Route 460 near King’s Fork Road.

The Crusaders (4-0), when the weather has been permitting during the past few weeks, routed their first three opponents. Friday’s game was a good game for four innings, then the Crusader bats warmed up.

Spurred by two hit batters and an error on a grounder, the first three Crusader hitters reached base to start the home half of the fifth, setting up clean-up hitter Josh Henderson.

Henderson, 0-for-2 so far on the afternoon, launched an 0-2 pitch to the gap in left-center field allowing Luke Ognibene, Ben Joslin and Wes Hughes to come around and score for a 4-1 First Baptist lead.

Colby Toler’s single plated Henderson, followed by Trey Cochran pulling a hard smash down the first-base line all the way to the corner for an RBI triple. It made back-to-back RBI triples for Cochran as his first one got the Crusader on the board, for a 1-1 tie, in the fourth inning.

The Crusader rally stopped at 6-1 in the fifth, only for everyone to get right back to hitting in the next First Baptist frame. The game ended via mercy rule after six hits and just one out in the sixth.

Pinch-hitter Nathan Van Dorn drove in two runs with a sharp single to left. Toler belted an RBI double just shy of the fence in straightaway right field to finish the day reaching base all four times he came up.

Cochran added another double, with his third RBI of the game, and Matthew Walker hit a triple to the gap in right-center for the final run.

Toler started on the mound and went two innings. He worked around six walks to hold the Eagles to one run despite all the base runners.

Joslin moved from shortstop to the mound for the top of the third. The right-hander’s fastball was too much for the Eagles, as he allowed no hits and two walks while striking out nine in his four innings.

The Crusader schedule picks up next week with five games in five days. First Baptist hosts Seven Cities conference mate Summit Tuesday before going to Peninsula Catholic on Wednesday and playing in a three-game tournament at Norfolk Christian Friday-Saturday.