By Matt Bajkowski
Sports Editor
The Knights started their season Tuesday, Mar. 20, with beautiful weather, the boys’ baseball team is lucky to see this time of year.  Unfortunately, while the weather was wonderful, the Knights lost to the Cary Grove Trojans 11-9 in extra innings.
Senior Jack Landwehr started on the mound with five strikeouts  and went four innings, giving up no runs while only allowing two hits and a walk for the Trojans.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Knights scored their first two runs with a walk by senior Brad Gerdes, three singles from senior Shane Joyce, junior Dan Kavanagh and sophomore Jackson Wrede, and a sacrifice fly by senior Nico Witanen.
Landwehr switched to third base in the fifth inning as Joyce came into pitch and gave up four runs to the Trojans on a pair of doubles, a single and a hit by pitch.  The Knights regained the lead however, with a small, four-run rally started with a lead-off double by junior Zach Tuczak, and ended by Kavanagh, who took the second pitch of his at bat over the left field fence for two runs.
Senior Pat Drucker went out to the mound in the sixth, and after a mound visit half-way through the inning, finished the inning only letting in one run.  Junior AJ Compton led off the inning for the Knights by walking and then stealing second base, which allowed him to score off of a single by Tuczak, putting Prospect up 7-5.
In the seventh, sophomore Jordan Fedro came in to close the game, but found trouble with his first varsity appearance.  He let up a home run to the Trojan’s  lead-off man, and then a double and two singles, which put the Trojans up by one going into the bottom of the last inning.
Senior Eric Krohm hit a single as the second batter in bottom of the inning.  Sophomore Tommy Flahaven then subbed in to run for Krohm, and scored off of senior Jake Logiudice’s single to tie the game at eight and put it into extra innings.
Fedro stuggled again in the eighth, letting up a single and a walk before the five hitter blasted a three-run homer over the left field fence.  With the Knights down by three, Compton led-off the inning with a walk, was advanced by a single from Landwehr and then scored off a double from Gerdes.  Joyce was then walked, loading the bases, but Krohm grounded to the pitcher for a double play to end the game.
Head coach Ross Giusti was pleased with the game and said it’s “common” to see a lot of pitchers throw in the first game of the season.  He felt that while the pitching struggled at the end, the team needs to “stick with it” to develop the new talent on the team.  Giusti also said because the the Trojans are a good team, he was very glad with how the Knights performed offensively.