FREDERICKSBURG, Va.  —  The Catholic baseball team traveled to take Mary Washington in a non-conference matchup for its first game in a week. The Cardinals used early offensive output as a catalyst to grab a comfortable lead in the early innings to lead to a 7-1 victory for Catholic to earn its 14th win of the season.

The bats started the game off hot for the Cardinals as Steve Thomas, Mitchel Johnson and Dante Pozzi all singled in three consecutive at-bats to give the team a 1-0 lead before an out was recorded. Later in an inning, Zach Burton picked up an infield RBI single to bring Johnson to the plate to double the Catholic lead. 

After a shutdown first inning from Sam Fairhurst, Catholic came back up to the plate and continued to pick up hits with a lead-off single from Justin McCarthy. Thomas notched the first extra-base hit of the day for the Cardinals, roping a two run homer to left field to extend the Catholic lead to four.

The Cardinals tacked on another run to the lead in the top of the fifth after Jack Bateman drew a lead-off walk and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. Chase Falcon picked Bateman up with an RBI single into center field to make it a 5-0 game. Mary Washington scored its first and only run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning off a delayed steal with runners on first and third to score Eric Powell to cut the deficit to four.

Matthew Fisher tallied an RBI for himself in the top of the sixth on a base-hit to right field to bring in Johnson. The Cardinals brought in one more run in the top of the ninth when Jack Elwell smoked a triple and later came in to score on a wild pitch. Danny Prior was nails out of the pen for Catholic, pitching 2.1 shutout innings to close out a 7-1 win for Catholic. 

Inside the Box Score

• Fairhurst continues to shine on the mound for the Cardinals this season, earning his team-leasing fourth win of the season while tossing six, three hit, innings and only allowing one run. He now holds a 2.23 ERA on the season which is the fourth-lowest in the Landmark and leads the conference with 45 strikeouts in 36.1 innings pitched.
• Pozzi and Johnson each led the Cardinals in hits with three a piece in the game. For each of them, it was their ninth multi-hit game of the season and third three-hit game of the season. Pozzi extended his on-base streak to 17 games which is the longest by any player on the team this season.
• Thomas continued his strong season at the plate with two hits, including the homer which was his second of the season. His 36 hits on the season are the second-most in the Landmark and his average sits at .375 which is the fourth-highest in the conference. He now has 10 multi-hit games on the year which is the second-most on the team. 

The Cardinals return to conference play on Saturday, April 12 for a doubleheader against Susquehanna in Tysons, Va.. First pitch for game one is slated for 12 pm at Capital One Park.